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Europe: Study: Marijuana Slows Alzheimer's Decline
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n307/a10.html
Newshawk: Kirk
Pubdate: Thu, 24 Feb 2005
Source: Jerusalem Post (Israel)
Copyright: 2005 The Jerusalem Post
Contact: http://info.jpost.com/C002/Services/Feedback/editors.html
Website: http://www.jpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/516
Author: Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
STUDY: MARIJUANA SLOWS ALZHEIMER'S DECLINE
New Spanish and Israeli research shows that a synthetic analogue of the
active component of marijuana can reduce the inflammation and prevent the
mental decline associated with Alzheimer's disease. Although it was
conducted on human brain tissue in the lab and in a rat model -- but not in
living humans -- the research is regarded as a major step not only in
understanding how the brain reacts to Alzheimer's disease, but also in
helping to develop novel drugs for Alzheimer's and even Parkinson's disease.
Prof. Raphael Mechoulam, a medicinal chemistry expert who discovered
marijuana's active component ( called THC ), conducted the study with
researchers at the Cajal Institute and Complutense University in Madrid,
led by Maria de Ceballos. The study appears in Wednesday's issue of The
Journal of Neuroscience, which is published by the Society for
Neuroscience, an organization of more than 36,000 basic scientists and
clinicians who study the brain and nervous system.
To show the preventive effects of cannabinoids on Alzheimer's disease, the
team first compared the brain tissue of patients who died from Alzheimer's
disease with that of healthy people who had died at a similar age. They
looked closely at cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 - proteins to which
cannabinoids bind, allowing their effects to be felt - and atmicroglia,
which activate the brain s immune response. Micro-glia collect near plaques
and, when active, cause inflammation. The researchers found a dramatically
reduced functioning of cannabinoid receptors in diseased brain tissue,
meaning that patients had lost the capacity to experience cannabinoids'
protective effects.
In addition, the researchers showed that cannabinoids prevented cognitive
decline through rat experiments. They injected either amyloid ( which leads
to cognitive decline ) that had been allowed to aggregate or control
proteins into the brains of rats for one week. Other rats were injected
with a cannabinoid and either amyloid or a control protein. After two
months, the researchers trained the rats over five days to find a platform
hidden underwater. Rats treated with the control protein - with or without
cannabinoids - and those treated with the amyloid protein and cannabinoid
were able to find the platform. Rats treated with amyloid protein alone did
not learn how to find the platform.
Meshoullam said that the discovery was important, since most drugs given
for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are work
merely against symptoms and not the cause and essence of the
neurodegeneration. It is not necessary to smoke marijuana to conduct
trials, but to use the synthetic versions of the active ingredient, he told
The Jerusalem Post.
Clinical trials have not yet been scheduled or a request made for approval.
It is very complicated and expensive to run clinical trials, he said, but
he hoped they would be carried out due to the massive threat to human
health of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative disorders.
The researchers found that the presence of amyloid protein in the rats'
brains activated immune cells. Rats that received the control protein alone
or cannabinoid and a control protein did not show activation of microglia.
Using cell cultures, the investigators confirmed that cannabinoids
counteracted the activation of microglia and thus reduced inflammation.
These findings that cannabinoids work both to prevent inflammation and to
protect the brain may set the stage for their use as a therapeutic approach
for Alzheimer's disease, de Ceballos said. The scientists will now focus
their efforts on targeting one of the two main cannabinoid receptors that
is not involved in producing the psychotropic effects, or high, from marijuana.
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake
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Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
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