A chemical in marijuana may protect against brain damage from a stroke, according to a report in The Acts of the future national Academy of Sciences . The compound known as cannabidiol in the test tube SOP damage by oxygen free radicals more effectively than vitamins C and E, the more potent known food antioxidants.
As every knows pothead, marijuana and its component psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) inhibit the activity of certain brain areas. Aidan Hampson, in collaboration with colleagues from the National Institute of Mental Health and also undertook to check whether the inhibitory effects of THC may also prevent the toxic overstimulation of brain cells that occurs when brain cells become starved for oxygen and sugar, and are then unable to pump the neurotransmitter glutamate.
researchers simulated a stroke while bathing a Petri dish full of neurons in the neurotransmitter glutamate, which is toxic in high doses. When they added purified THC, half as many neurons died. First, the researchers speculated that THC binds to the cannabinoid receptor, but when they added another chemical that blocks the receptor, THC always protected the cells. "It should not have protected the neurons, but it also works well," says Hampson. Other tests have shown that THC was raking free radicals such as hydrogen peroxide, which are spewed from the excited neurons. They have also shown that cannabidiol, a component of marijuana similar to THC but its psychoactive effects, provided that the same antioxidant benefits.
Hampson is already at work simulating shots rats and try to prevent damage with cannabidiol. But pharmacologist Steve Childers, Wake Forest University Medical School in Winston-Salem, NC, is skeptical that cannabidiol would be effective in preventing strokes in people at safe doses. "They are not testing a very low concentration of the compound," he said.
0 Komentar