Cannabis drug beats opioids for low back pain

Hello Health Rounds readers! The medicinal benefits of cannabis have long been debated. Today we feature a study that found a cannabis-derived drug was better than opioids in a variety of measures for treating chronic lower back pain. We also highlight a discovery that diets rich in a certain amino acid may help heal intestinal damage caused by some cancer treatments.

Don't miss these breaking news stories from our Reuters team: US government shutdown threatens food-aid program for low-income Americans; Trump targets deals in pharma, AI, energy, mining before midterm elections; and the US FDA approves generic version of abortion drug.

Plus, US Pfizer deal powers health stocks as drugmakers court Trump; US health insurers reduce Medicare Advantage operations in 2026; the UK wins a lawsuit against firm over gowns contract in COVID pandemic; and scientists create human eggs using skin cells.

Nine-month-old baby Mohamat burned with fever for three days before his family took him to the closest health centre in northern Cameroon, but it was too late. He died of malaria that day.

Mohamat's death was part of a spike this year in malaria fatalities that local health officials attribute to foreign aid cuts by the United States.

An experimental cannabis-derived medication was safer and more effective than placebo and opioids for treating chronic low back pain in two late-stage trials, researchers say.

Treatment with VER-01, an extract from cannabis sativa DKJ127 L. being developed by Munich-based Vertanical, also improved pain-related sleep disturbances along with patients' physical function and quality of life, according to separate reports of the trials.

"VER-01 could transform how we care for patients with chronic lower back pain," Dr. Charles Argoff of Albany Medical College, who coauthored one of the reports, said in a statement.

"The results of the Phase 3 studies bring hope to millions living with chronic pain that, if approved, VER-01 could deliver effective pain relief while addressing key safety challenges of current therapies," said Argoff, a past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

In one randomized trial in 820 patients with chronic low back pain, improvements were seen with VER-01 compared with a placebo after 12 weeks and were sustained over 12 months of treatment. The VER-01 group reported a nearly 3-point decrease in pain on a 10-point scale, on average, researchers reported in Nature Medicine.

The VER-01 group also reported significantly greater improvements in sleep quality and physical function compared with the placebo group, researchers said.

A second Phase 3 study, published in Pain & Therapy, compared VER-01 with opioids in 384 patients with chronic low back pain. Along with superior pain control, patients receiving VER-01 reported less constipation, less laxative use, and better sleep than patients taking opioids.

In both trials, pain reduction with VER-01 was particularly pronounced in patients with severe pain or pain from nerve disorders, the researchers said.

A dietary intervention may help heal intestinal damage from radiation or chemotherapy, a study in mice suggests.

A diet rich in the amino acid cysteine turns on an immune signaling pathway that helps stem cells to regrow new tissue to line the intestines, researchers reported in Nature.

High cysteine foods include pork, beef, chicken, fish, lentils, oatmeal, eggs, low-fat yogurt, sunflower seeds, and cheese.

In their study, the researchers began by feeding mice a diet high in one of 20 different amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Among these amino acids, cysteine had the most dramatic effects on stem cells and progenitor cells, which are immature cells that can differentiate into adult intestinal cells.

Further experiments revealed that when cells lining the intestine absorb cysteine from digested food, they convert it into molecules called CoA, which are then absorbed by immune cells called CD8 T cells. This stimulates the T cells to produce a protein called IL-22 that plays an important role in intestinal stem cell regeneration.

"Once activated, those IL-22-releasing T cells are primed to help combat any kind of injury that could occur within the intestinal lining," the researchers said.

Also, in work that has not been published yet, they found that a high-cysteine diet had a regenerative effect following treatment with a chemotherapy drug called 5-fluorouracil. This drug, which is used to treat colon and pancreatic cancers, can also damage the intestinal lining.

If future research shows similar results in humans, then delivering elevated quantities of cysteine might dampen some chemotherapy or radiation-induced injuries to the intestinal lining, study leader Omer Yilmaz of MIT said in a statement.

"The beauty here is we're not using a synthetic molecule,  we're exploiting a natural dietary compound," Yilmaz said.

This newsletter was edited by Bill Berkrot; additional editing by Kate Turton.

Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters' website

Reuters Health Rounds is sent twice a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.

Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here.

This email includes limited tracking for Reuters to understand whether you've engaged with its contents. For more information on how we process your personal information and your rights, please see our Privacy Statement.

Terms & Conditions