Memory performance declines with age and marijuana can reverse these aging processes in the brain, according to an experiment tested in mice and carried out by scientists at the University of Bonn (Germany) together with researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). Thus, the older rodents were able to return to the state of two-month-old mice with prolonged treatment of low doses of an active ingredient in cannabis.
Specifically, the study showed that while a low dose of the cannabinoid delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol caused younger mice to perform significantly worse in learning and memory tasks, in older mice it caused the opposite effect: cognitive abilities that tend to decrease with age, they returned to levels of young mice.
Could this cannabis compound reverse cognitive decline in humans? Scientists are not entirely sure and claim they need more experiments before confirming it.
Cannabinoids such as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) make up one type of compound among the more than 100 psychoactive compounds found in the marijuana plant. All have a powerful effect because they interact with cannabinoid receptors in the brain.
The experts decided to explore the link between the “endocannabinoid system” and the symptoms of aging in mice. Therefore, they tested the effect of THC at low doses in 2-month-old mice, as well as in mature and elderly mice (12 and 18 months of age, respectively). The results showed that although the treatment was detrimental to young mice, it appeared to be beneficial to mature and elderly mice.
Young mice performed worse on learning and memory tasks, but mature and elderly mice showed improvements in these two fields. They also found that the advancement in learning and memory observed in the older mice was linked to changes in the expression of genes that regulate the hippocampus , a region of the brain important for memory function. These changes involved very similar hippocampal gene expression patterns to those seen in younger mice.
How long do these changes last? Will its effect evolve over time? What are the underlying mechanisms involved in this improvement? These will be the next questions they intend to answer before knowing whether “chronic low-dose treatment with THC or cannabis extracts could be a potential strategy to slow or even reverse cognitive decline in the elderly,” the authors conclude. .
The study has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.
