London, June 8 (ANI): You might be sent to jail if you’re caught while in possession of marijuana, but not if the form of the drug you happen to have is a possible skin cream that soothes skin allergies.

Marijuana contains compounds called cannabinoids, that researchers have found not only stimulate the growth of new neurons, but also ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Cannabinoids are also naturally produced in the body.

Now, researchers conducting a new study on cannabinoids have found that in mice, it can relieve some of the swollen, itchy agony of allergic skin reactions.

As a part of their study, researchers clipped mice, that had been genetically modified to lack two proteins that usually recognize cannabinoids produced by the body, with two sets of metal identification tags in their ears.

One set of tags contained nickel and the other was made from non-allergenic brass.

The researchers noted that the tags that contained nickel caused the mice without the proteins to keep scratching around that are till the area became raw and covered with sores.

They noted that the mice that still had their cannabinoid receptors did not react in this way.

"We thought at first it was just an itching phenotype. But then we switched to another brand of ear tags and all of a sudden the problem completely disappeared," Nature quoted Andreas Zimmer, a neurobiologist at the University of Bonn, as saying.

The results suggested that cannabinoids produced by the body might help protect the animals against skin allergies.

To check whether this still happened when the compounds were applied externally, Zimmer's research team applied a cannabinoid to the skin of mice before and after they were exposed to a chemical (called 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene), which is known to produce an allergic response.

They noted that in the rodents that had received the cannabinoid, there was a diminished allergic response, with about 50 percent less swelling.

While the researchers have still not pinpointed how cannabinoids diminish allergic reactions, they did find that the compounds alter the expression of genes that encode small proteins called chemokines, some of which are known to promote inflammation.

Roman Rukwied, who studies pain and inflammation at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, warns that the study should not encourage people to smoke marijuana thinking it would cure them of allergies.

"We are far before the day when we could say 'oh, I have a nickel allergy. I will smoke marijuana and I won't have it anymore'. That is definitely not the case," he said.

The study appears in the latest issue of the journal Science. (ANI)