Marijuana's Key Ingredient May Fight Alzheimer's Disease

Marijuana's Key Ingredient May Fight Alzheimer's Disease
FoxNews / Charles Q Choi / 10,11,2011


AP

AChE is known to help accelerate the formation of abnormal protein clumps in the brain, known as amyloid plaques, during Alzheimer's. The active ingredient of marijuana could be considerably better at suppressing the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease than any currently approved prescription drugs.

Scientists report the finding in the Oct. 2 issue of the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.

About 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease, which gradually destroys memory. As more people survive into old age, cases of Alzheimer's disease are expected to triple over the next 50 years. There is no known cure.

The researchers looked at THC, the compound inside marijuana responsible for its action on the brain.

Computer models suggested THC might inhibit an enzyme with the tongue-twisting name of acetylcholinesterase (also called AChE) that is linked to Alzheimer's.

This enzyme also helps break down the brain chemical acetylcholine, which is linked to memory and learning. Acetylcholine levels are reduced during Alzheimer's.

In lab experiments, the scientists found THC was significantly better at disrupting the abnormal clumping of malformed proteins.

THC could completely prevent AChE from forming amyloid , while two drugs approved for use against Alzheimer's, donepezil and tacrine, reduced clumping by only 22 and 7 percent, respectively, at twice the concentration of THC used in the tests.

"We're not advocating smoking dope, but if we can make analogues of THC, it could play a role in treating ," researcher Kim Janda, a chemist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., told LiveScience. "It would be nice to do more animal studies along these lines."

Past research on human brain tissues and experiments with rats have suggested that synthetic analogues of THC can reduce the inflammation and prevent the mental decline associated with Alzheimer's .

However, marijuana is not necessarily good for the mind.

Prior investigations have shown that years of heavy marijuana use, consisting of four or more joints a week, can impair memory, decision-making and the ability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.


All investigations that show harm in marijuana are paid for by NIDA and the ONDCP and where does science stop and drug policy begin?
I underlined where drug policy began and science stopped in this article.

 

Medical Marijuana: Silver Tour Reaches Out To America's Senior Citizens
October 12th, 2011 / Allen St. Pierre / NORML


The narrative of the popular 1960s song entitled ‘Teach Your Children‘ by Crosby, Stills and Nash was for ‘parents to teach their children well'. Today the children of the World War II generation (the so-called ‘greatest' generation) are teaching their parents (and their fellow Baby Boomers) about the wonderful utility of naturally-produced, non-toxic medical cannabis to successfully treat and/or manage a wide-range of health ailments.



NORML and High Times' Medical Marijuana Magazine are the primary sponsors of the Silver Tour, a project of the nascent NORML Senior Alliance. The Silver Tour is championed by Robert Platshorn, one of America's most successful cannabis smugglers and the nation's longest serving cannabis prisoner (Robert served twenty eight years in federal prisons).

The basic mission of the Silver Tour is to speak and present at any venues on the topic of medical cannabis where senior citizens are clustered in large numbers–notably at senior living communities, retirement homes, religious centers and hospice.

One of the first public outreach events happened last week in Miami at a Jewish Community Center.


Now they can add this article to their Silver tour presentation.