An Ultra-Low Dose of ∆9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Alleviates Alzheimer's Disease-Related Cognitive Impairments and Modulates TrkB Receptor Expression in a 5XFAD Mouse Model

Keren Nitzan, Leah Ellenbogen, Ziv Bentulila, Dekel David, Motty Franko, Emanuela P. Break, Michal Zoharetz, Alon Shamir, Yosef Sarne, Ravid Doron

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, but there is still no available treatment. Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is emerging as a promising therapeutic agent. Using THC in conventional high doses may have deleterious effects. Therefore, we propose to use an ultra-low dose of THC (ULD-THC). We previously published that a single injection of ULD-THC ameliorated cognitive functioning in several models of brain injuries as well as in naturally aging mice. Here, 5xFAD AD model mice received a single treatment of ULD-THC (0.002 mg/kg) after disease onset and were examined in two separate experiments for cognitive functions, neurotropic, and inflammatory factors in the hippocampus. We show that a single injection of ULD-THC alleviated cognitive impairments in 6- and 12-month-old 5xFAD mice. On the biochemical level, our results indicate an imbalance between the truncated TrkB receptor isoform and the full receptor, with AD mice showing a greater tendency to express the truncated receptor, and ULD-THC improved this imbalance. We also investigated the expression of three AD-related inflammatory markers and found an ameliorating effect of ULD-THC. The current research demonstrates for the first time the beneficial effects of a single ultra-low dose of THC in a mouse model of AD after disease onset.

Original languageEnglish
Article number9449
JournalInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences
Volume23
Issue number16
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.

Keywords

  • Alzheimer Disease/drug therapy
  • Animals
  • Cognitive Dysfunction/drug therapy
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Dronabinol/pharmacology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Transgenic
  • Receptor, trkB

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