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The ingredient that makes hot chilies hot is called capsaicin—it can
set your mouth on fire. But the spicy compound has a soothing effect too: in
your gut, it kicks off a chemical cascade that might calm the immune system
reduce inflammation.
Researchers studied that phenomenon in mice. Once inside the gut, the
capsaicin molecules plugged into a specific receptor, spurring the release of
another compound, called anandamide.
Anandamide happens to be an endocannabinoid—similar to active ingredients
in marijuana—which binds to cannabinoid receptors in the gut. That last step in
the cascade ramped up the production of cells that damp down inflammation in the
mice—even cured them of a mouse model of diabetes type 1, an autoimmune
disease.
If all this sounds a bit similar to the chemical messaging that happens in
the brain...that's because it is. "The gut has a very large nervous system. It's
almost as large as the brain itself." Pramod Srivastava, an immunologist at
UConn Health one of the study's leaders.
"We don't quite fully understwhat this huge amount of neurons are doing
in the gut. We don't understits language, the molecules mediators.
I think with this work we can at least claim to have found a couple of words
in that language." The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.
So to recap that chemical chain: chilies cause the production of
endocannabinoids, which produce immune suppressant cells, which soothe
inflammation. So, what if you cut out the chili initiator, just eat
cannabinoids—pot brownies, stuff like that?
"Obviously we are very interested in people who use edible cannabinoids.
I'm extremely curious if people with colitis or Crohn's disease, who are edible
pot users, do they benefit from it? I have no idea. But it's something we can
now find out because sizable numbers of people are consuming those edibles.”
让辣椒产生辣味的成分叫做辣椒素，它会让你的嘴巴冒火。不过这种辛辣的化合物也有舒缓作用：它会在肠道中触发一种化学级联反应，这种反应可以稳定免疫系统并减少炎症。
研究人员在小白鼠身上对这一现象进行了研究。一旦进入肠道，辣椒素分子便会进入一种特殊的受体，促进另一种名为 “大麻素” 的化合物的释放。
这是一种内源性大麻素，类似于大麻中的有效成分，它会与肠道中的大麻素受体结合。级联反应的最后一步使小白鼠体内抑制炎症的细胞数量增加，甚至治愈了患有 1
型糖尿病的小白鼠，1 型糖尿病是一种自体免疫性疾病。
这些听起来可能有点像大脑中的化学消息传递，那是因为就是这样。“肠道拥有一个非常庞大的神经系统。几乎和大脑的神经系统一样庞大。”普拉莫德·斯里瓦斯塔瓦是康涅狄格大学健康中心的免疫学家，也是这项研究的负责人之一。
“我们不完全了解肠道中的大量神经细胞有何作用。我们不懂神经细胞语言，也不了解这些分子和介质。不过我认为，至少我们通过这项研究发现了这种语言的几个单词。”
这项研究发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。
现在来回顾一下这个化学反应链：辣椒催生内源性大麻素，内源性大麻素产生免疫抑制细胞，这种细胞缓解炎症。那么，如果去掉辣椒这个引发剂，直接获取大麻素，比如吃大麻布朗尼之类的东西，会怎样呢?
“显然，我们对摄取可食用大麻素的人非常感兴趣。我非常好奇的是，如果患有结肠炎或克罗恩病的人食用大麻，能缓解病症吗?我并不知道答案。不过因为现在有相当多的人在服用可食用大麻，所以我们可以找到答案。”
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