Cannabis may help reverse dementia: study
Date
February 6, 2013
Amy Corderoy
Amy Corderoy
Health Editor, Sydney Morning Herald
View more articles from Amy Corderoy
It
makes most people a little foggy-headed, but scientists are
investigating whether an active ingredient in cannabis could actually
stave off dementia.
A team from Neuroscience Research Australia
is in the early stages of research examining if one of the main active
ingredients in cannabis, called cannabidiol, could reverse some of the
symptoms of memory loss in animals.
Tim Karl, a senior research
fellow with the group, said cannabidiol does not have the same
psychoactive effects as the main component of marijuana, THC, but it has
been found to have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and other effects
that could be beneficial for the brain.
“Back in the day cannabis
was used for medical purposes, I'm talking 200 years, 100 years back,
then at some point people discovered it had other effects and, as quite
often happens in our society, people decided it was a bad drug,” he
said.
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“But it's not one compound, it is a
mixture of 60 different compounds, and you just have to look at those
different compounds because some of them might be good for you.”
His
study involved injecting cannabidiol into mice that had been bred to
have similar symptoms as those seen in Alzheimer's, as well as examining
what would happen to brain cells treated with the drug.
Dr Karl
found that when the mice were given the cannabidiol they showed drastic
improvement on parts of the tests that were related to recognising and
remembering objects and other mice.
“It basically brings the
performance of the animals back to the level of healthy animals,” he
said. “You could say it cured them, but we will have to go back and look
at their brains to be sure.”
The study was done as part of the
PhD of student David Cheng, who has also collected the brains of the
mice and intends to examine them to see if they showed physical
improvements.
As part of the research, which is being presented
at the Australian Neuroscience Society annual meeting in Melbourne this
week, the team also treated animal brain cells that produced a protein
linked to the development of plaques in the brain in humans with
Alzheimer's disease, amyloid precursor protein.
The cell
research, done at the University of Wollongong, found treating the cells
with cannabidiol also reduced the amount of the harmful protein that
they produced.
Dr Karl said there had been case reports in
medical literature of marijuana smokers who had developed Alzheimer's
disease, only to find their smoking seemed to relieve some of their
symptoms.
“Most of the components [of marijuana] are detrimental,
they worsen your cognitive performance and have psychoactive effects…
cannabidiol seems to not have any of these negative effects,” he said.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/cannabis-may-help-reverse-dementia-study-20130206-2dxsk.html#ixzz2j49Wiotc
