Cannabinoids remove plaque-forming Alzheimer's proteins from brain cells (2016)

anjel

Pro: Salk Institute Con: Preliminary Research, In Vitro

cdata

This appears to be dated 2016. Did the preliminary results amount to anything?

rusakov-field

Man, too bad weed gives me bad panic attacks. Alzheimers is the scariest disease I know so maybe if the studies pan out in time and it becomes a standard preventative, I might consider trying again. But somehow I doubt it will be found to be that effective.

MarkusQ

Remove them and replace them with...Doritos?

ProjectArcturis

There are easily hundreds of compounds that can reduce beta-amyloid in vitro. This is a decade-old nothingburger.

Aurornis

I only had time to skim the paper. Notably, the effect is concentration dependent and required high concentrations of THC. The chart shows it really starting in the 0.1uM range and then taking off in the 1uM range. I don’t know what levels are achieved during normal use but I did find some studies that successfully killed a lot of hippocampal neuronal cells after 6 days at 1uM range. So the levels of THC observed in this study appear to be in the same range where things start getting really disrupted in cells. In other words, don’t expect to replicate these results with normal recreational use.

bitwize

Get stupid now to avoid cognitive decline later? Not sure I like that tradeoff...

laughing_man

Do we still think clearing beta amyloid plaques will halt the progress of Alzheimer's? My impression is we're treating marker for the disease and not the cause.

jcranmer

Too bad we've had like a half-dozen putative Alzheimer's drugs that clear amyloid beta that turn out to do nothing to slow or prevent Alzheimer's. Actually, I think even by 2016 we already had enough phase 3 drug failures that the amyloid hypothesis was severely called into question?

colordrops

Anecdotally, when I'm feeling scattered and foggy, when I take a big hit off of my vape pen, I go through a period of noticing how shaky my appendages are, and go through what feels like a physical process of the sensation of my mind "unwrinkling" or unfurling. I often wondered if something was being cleaned out in my brain because I usually feel a lot more calm and still afterward, thoughts more collected.

anonnon

And yet, has anyone ever claimed regular marijuana use improved their memory?

edoceo

There was another recent study showing that THC was creating false short term memories - like "I swear I told you that" - but never did.

edoceo

There was another recent study showing that THC was creating false short term memories - like "I swear I told you that" - but never did. Cannabis really needs a lot more study.