Marijuana Compound Has 'Anti-Aging Effect On The Brain,' Study Of Mice Dosed With THC Finds
Authors of a new study on the neurological impacts of long-term THC administration say their findings "could be the basis for an effective antiaging and pro-cognitive medication," noting increased energy and synaptic protein production in mice that received low doses of the chief psychoactive substance in marijuana.
"Long-term low-dose Δ9-THC had an antiaging effect on the brain by restoring cognitive abilities and synapse densities in old mice," says the new research, published this month in the American Chemical Society journal Pharmacology and Translational Science, adding that the "results suggest that Δ9-THC-induced consecutive bidirectional changes [in the brain] may play a significant role in the positive effect of Δ9-THC treatment against brain aging."
Researchers took older and younger age groups of male mice-four months old and 18 months old-and gave them either THC or a placebo for about a month. Measurements included brain function as well as levels of proteins associated with things like metabolism, memory, and aging. One of the main proteins analyzed was mTOR, which influences cognitive performance and various aging-related cell functions across the body, such as growth and metabolism.
Outside the brain, THC appeared to produce a different kind of anti-aging effect. Fat tissue in older mice that received THC showed a
"Here, we have shown that a low-dose long-term Δ9-THC treatment leads to a temporary increase in mTOR activity and mobilization of energy resources, thus triggering the formation of new synapses. This phase is followed by a reduced energy expenditure and reduced mTOR signaling in the adipose tissue, probably due to the depletion of resources in the first phase. Through this mechanism, Δ9-THC treatment combines the pro-cognitive effect of an mTOR activation with the antiaging effect of mTOR activity blockade. Our data now suggest that a long-term low-dose Δ9-THC treatment could be a particularly effective treatment strategy against brain aging."
Over the course of the 28-day study, the strongest differences in brain activity appeared about two weeks in, while the effects in fatty tissue appeared to peak at the end of the study period. Authors said the "dual effect" observed on different types of cells at different times could open the door to developing effective anti-aging medications.
"We concluded that long-term THC treatment initially has a cognition-enhancing effect by increasing energy and synaptic protein production in the brain, followed by an anti-aging effect by decreasing mTOR activity and metabolic processes in the periphery," Andras Bilkei-Gorzo from the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry at the UKB, who is also a researcher at the University of Bonn, said in a press release. "Our study suggests that a dual effect on mTOR activity and the metabolome could be the basis for an effective anti-aging and cognition-enhancing drug."
Notably, the authors of the study observed that the age of the mice seemed to modulate the effects of THC. For example, authors wrote that in general, THC treatment generated polyunsaturated fatty acids, which they describe as "compounds with a well-documented antiaging effect."
That was true in both younger and older mice, but the similarities stopped there. Observed effects of treatment "on the concentration of all other Δ9-THC-affected compound classes," the study says, "substantially differed between young and old mice."
Those findings are consistent with past research published in the journal Nature in 2017 showing age-dependent effects of THC on brain function, authors noted.
"Our previous studies showed that long-term low-dose Δ9-THC treatment has an opposite effect on the brain of young and old animals: Δ9-THC-treated old mice showed an improved learning ability and enhanced synapse densities, whereas the same treatment slightly impaired the memory and destabilized spines in young animals," they wrote. "We now show that the effect of Δ9-THC on the metabolome was also strongly dependent on age: most of the compound classes influenced by Δ9-THC in old mice were also affected in young animals but in the opposite direction!"
The new report points to a number of areas of further research necessary to explore and expand on the new findings, for example, looking into differences in dosage and duration of administration. It's also necessary to weigh possible anti-aging effects of THC against other, potentially detrimental effects of long-term use. Eventually, the study's findings would also need to be replicated in human subjects.
A growing body of research into cannabis and the brain suggest that, despite worries over long-term risks, marijuana may actually offer some promising benefits.
