█ CANABINÓIDES E █ DEPENDÊNCIA
CANABINÓIDES E CANCRO
Em Setembro de 1998 numa edição do jornal FEBS Letters, os investigadores da Univerdade Complutense de Madrid, mais concretamente da Escola de Biologia, reportaram inicialmente que o delta-9-THC induzia a apoptose (morte celular programada) em culturas de células de Glioma (Guzman et al. 1998). Os investigadores confir-maram novamente, em 2003, a possibilidade dos canabinóides inibirem o crescimento de tumores animais (Guzman et al. 2003). No mesmo ano, cientistas italianos da Universidade de Milão, do
Departamento de Farmacologia, Quimioterapia e Toxicologia, comprovaram que o canabinóide não-psicoactivo, o canabidiol, inibe o crescimen-to de várias linhas celulares humanas de Gliomas, tanto in vitro como in vivo (de forma dependente
da dose). Publicado em Novembro de 2003, num artigo do Journal of Pharmacology and Experi-mental Therapeutics Fast Forward, os investiga-dores constataram “uma actividade anti-tumoral significativa tanto in vivo como in vitro do
Cana-bidiol, sugerindo assim uma possível aplicação deste composto como um agente anti-neoplásico” (Massi et al. 2004). Em Agosto de 2004, um artigo publicado na revista Cancer Research, conclui que “os achados clínicos presentes em ambiente labo-ratorial representam um novo alvo farmacológico para terapias baseadas no uso de canabinóides” (Guzman et al. 2004). Os investigadores também notaram que o THC seleccionava as células can-cerosas, ignorando as saudáveis de forma muito mais profunda, do que o alternativo sintético (Allister et al. 2005). A relativa segurança do THC, conjuntamente com a sua acção anti-proliferativa em tumores pode conter a base para ensaios fu-turos, almejando avaliar o potencial anti-tumoral decorrente da actividade canabinóide” (Guzman et al. 2006). Para além da capacidade que os ca-nabinóides possuem na moderação de células de Glioma, estudos paralelos demonstram que os canabinóides e os endocanabinóides podem tam-bém inibir a proliferação de várias linhas celulares, incluindo as do cancro mamário (Cafferal et al. 2006; Di Marzo et al. 2006; De Petrocellis et al. 1998; McAllister et al. 2007), cancro da próstata (Sarfaraz et al. 2005; Mimeault et al. 2003; Ruiz et al. 1999), carcinoma colorectal (Pastos et al. 2005), adenocarcinoma gástrico (Di Marzo et al. 2006), cancro da pele (Casanova et al. 2003), células de linhas leucémicas (Powles et al. 2005; Jia et al. 2006), neuroblastoma (Guzman 2003), cancro do pulmão (Preet et al. 2008), cancro do colo do úte-ro (Guzman 2003), epitelioma da tiróide (Baek et
al. 1998) adenocarcinoma pancreático (Carracedo et al. 2006; Michalski et al. 2007) carcinoma cer-vical (Ramer-Hinza 2008) e linfoma (Gustafsson et al. 2006; Gustafsson et al. 2008). Consequente-mente, muitos peritos hoje concordam que os ca-nabinóides “podem representar uma nova classe de medicamentos anti-tumorais, que retardam o crescimento celular anormal, inibindo a angiogé-nese e a metastização das células cancerígenas” (Kogan 2005; Sarafaraz et al. 2009).
█ CONCLUSãO
Sobressaem, sem dúvida nenhuma, perspectivas interessantes e estimulantes quanto a um possí-vel uso de Cannabis (enquanto planta) e/ou dos
canabinóides que directa ou indirectamente de si advêm, no tratamento de doenças muitas vezes incapacitantes e incuráveis. Nem que não repre-sente directamente a cura para estas patologias, confere certamente uma alternativa terapêutica, ou pelo menos uma complementaridade sinérgica ao tradicional tratamento empregue. Em muitos casos, verifica-se que melhora a sintomatologia nos pacientes, arrastando consigo uma melhora na qualidade de vida, ânimo e alívio rápido (se não instantâneo) de muitas condições comuns a diversas patologias, como: dor, depressão, perda de apetite, etc.
Há muito que são conhecidas algumas das face-tas que ajudam a tornar a Cannabis “a droga mais
popular do mundo”. As inigualáveis propriedades que possui, e o vastíssimo conhecimento que dela se poderá adquirir para a área científica, fazem com que a necessidade de se investigar e aprofun-dar mais a temática, se torne imperativa. O desco-nhecimento e a campanha de desinformação em torno da “eminente perigosidade” que acarreta deve ser um aviso para a comunidade científica, no sentido de procurar esclarecer e informar de-vidamente a comunidade e a população em geral. Perante os mais variados factos apresentados,
jul-go que não se poderá descartar de forma leviana a possibilidade de fomentar investigações futuras (pois as existentes, apesar de tudo, são ainda es-cassas). A existência recentemente comprovada de um sistema endocanabinóide poderá, portan-to, conter a chave para um melhor entendimento relativamente ao funcionamento do organismo animal, e humano em particular. Deve ser levan-tada a hipótese de, com um maior e melhor en-tendimento das propriedades dos canabinóides, mas, sobretudo, da forma com que actuam nos inúmeros receptores canabinóides, poder com isso contribuir - embora que modestamente, mas de forma singular - para um avanço do conheci-mento científico e da educação do público-alvo. A terapêutica canabinóide apresenta uma futura re-levância, sobretudo para o caso de doentes termi-nais, que são os que mais lamentam o tratamento a que são submetidos; com os efeitos adversos com que muitas vezes têm de acatar. Acima de tudo, parece ser unânime que a utilização de Cannabis
e/ou canabinóides como anti-eméticos em pós--quimioterapia, deve ser equacionada.
Não se deverá também, levianamente, ignorar a existência de medicação muito bem tolerada para algumas das patologias apresentadas, (sobretu-do no que respeita a esta(sobretu-dos eméticos) embora também não deixe de ser verdade que muito di-ficilmente se consegue satisfazer com um dado regime terápico, 100% dos pacientes. Assim sen-do, a obrigação de um profissional de saúde será também lutar para que a maioria dos afligidos seja “satisfeita”, e nesse fio de pensamento alguns paí-ses iniciaram já o fornecimento de Cannabis
medi-cinal para os seus doentes, e mediante prescrição médica, na medida em que entendem que a utili-zação de outras substâncias (como por exemplo) as usadas em ambulatório, pode apresentar efeitos indesejáveis e dificilmente tratáveis, levando por vezes à dependência.
tam-bém abordadas neste contexto como o Glaucoma, a Asma, a Depressão, etc. No fundo, doenças em que comprovadamente o tratamento com canabi-nóides é tudo menos irresponsável. Sem dúvida que o status legal da substância obriga muitas ve-zes os subsidiários de muitos estudos a assumir alguma relutância, mas é sobretudo a ideia de que nada de bom poderá alguma vez provir de algo que já foi patenteado como sendo “um veneno” que torna toda esta situação complicada. Embo-ra a ideia de tornar uma parte da Natureza ilegal pareça um tanto ou quanto paranóica no entender de alguns, é acima de tudo incompreensível o re-ceio de se poder conter numa simples planta uma alternativa terapêutica mais bem tolerada com menos efeitos secundários, e quem sabe, conter
até uma possível resolução para um vasto leque de enfermidades agudas e crónicas que nos afligem. Torna-se fácil compreender os motivos pelos quais a Cannabis é tão mal compreendida. Por uns
é exageradamente louvada, por outros é exagera-damente diabolizada. Talvez um pouco por todos, seja altamente incompreendida. Uma questão de-verá ser colocada: “se nem dentro da comunidade científica se consegue consensualizar uma opinião em relação a uma substância natural, como pode-remos tentar encontrar um consenso para a enor-me variedade de sintéticos que já existem, e para todos aqueles que virão no futuro?”
PALAVRAS-CHAVE:
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