A compound found incannabismay stave in off a type of programmed cubicle expiry regularly seen in the nerve cell of people with Alzheimer ’s disease , Parkinson ’s disease , and other material body ofdementia .
call cannabinol ( CBN ) , the cannabinoid in question is not psychoactive and appears to keep mature brain cells alive by specify oxidative tension within primal cellular cell organelle . CBN has antecedently been find to have potent neuroprotective effect , but the chemical mechanism underlying this property remains unknown .
The researchers therefore chose to investigate the cannabinoid ’s electrical capacity to disrupt a form of cell expiry called oxytosis – aka ferroptosis – which is powerfully assort with age - touch on neurodegeneration , detailing their discovery in the journalFree Radical Biology and Medicine .
Oxytosis / ferroptosis take place when cells ’ supply of the antioxidant glutathione ( GSH ) is depleted , resulting in increased production of harmful reactive O mintage ( ROS ) and a lethal influx of calcium ion across the jail cell membrane . The study author triggered this process in hippocampal cells by administering high-pitched concentrations of glutamate , finding that this caused neurons to contract and interchange shape .
However , cell that were pre - treat with CBN stay level-headed and undamaged after being incubate with glutamate , suggesting that the chemical compound may somehow inhibit oxytosis / ferroptosis .
Given that this type of cellphone death is known to generate a orotund step-up in ROS in mitochondria – the organelles that generate cells ’ energy – the subject field author begin to speculate that CBN may help to keep psyche electric cell live by protect these primal cellular structure .
Further experiments revealed that , without thiscannabinoid , the induction of oxytosis / ferroptosis caused mitochondria to curl up and stop serve – but the accession of CBN forestall this morphologic distortion . Crucially , the inflow of atomic number 20 ions across mitochondrial membrane was also reduced by CBN , thus enable these important organelles to continue operate normally .
The experiment was repeated using brain cells direct to lack mitochondria altogether , revealing that CBN was unequal to of preventing oxytosis / ferroptosis in these neurons . This finding come along to confirm the pathway by which the cannabinoid protects senesce brain cell , implying that the compound counterbalance certain variant of programmed cell death by screen mitochondria from oxidative hurt .
Commenting on these finding , study author Pamel Maher explain in astatementthat “ cannabinol protects neurons from oxidative stress and cell expiry , two of the major contributors to Alzheimer ’s . ”
“ This discovery could one day lead to the evolution of Modern curative for treating this disease and other neurodegenerative disorderliness , like Parkinson ’s disease , ” she said .
Importantly , the research worker find that CBN ’s neuroprotective personal effects were conserve in brain prison cell that had been engineered to lack cannabinoid sense organ , advise that it should work without causing hoi polloi to become pit . According to Maher , these observations could open up the door to raw treatment for a stove of different upset .
“ Mitochondrial disfunction is implicate in changes in various tissues , not just in the brain and ripening , ” she said . “ The fact that this compound is capable to keep mitochondrial function intimate it could have more benefits beyond the linguistic context of Alzheimer ’s disease . ”
