Pot Saves the Brain

Marijuana has well-known medicinal uses, but the latest finding sounds like something from the Bizarro world. Aidan Hampson and his colleagues of the National Institute of Mental Health find that THC and cannibidiol, two chemicals found in the marijuana plant, are potent antioxidants which could prevent the death of brain cells in stroke victims. Unlike THC, cannibidiol is not a psychoactive substance--in other words, it doesn't cause a high--and it few side effects. In studies using rats neurons, Hampson's group determined that cannibidiol is at least as powerful as vitamins C and E in mopping up dangerous oxidizing compounds released during a stroke. The marijuana-derived chemical could even be useful for treating Alzheimer's, which may also involve neuron damage caused by oxidation. Hampson's work appears in the July Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Who knew pot could help the brain?

More immediate progress toward understanding Alzheimer's is reported three articles in the July issue of Nature Medicine. Neurologists at Harvard Medical School have produced the first convincing animal model of Alzheimer's, in rhesus monkeys. Researchers at the Heinrich-Heine University in Germany have developed a superior technique for diagnosing the disease on the basis of protein plaques that form in the brain. And a team from New York University Medical Center have discovered a molecule that breaks up the plaques, which could lead to a treatment for Alzheimer's.

--Corey S. Powell Posted 7/7/98