Effects of the treatment with phytocannabinoids an animal model of Alzheimer's disease like sporadic.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative condition, is one of the most common forms of dementia, a chronic condition characterized by a decline in cognitive and functional abilities, which mainly affects the elderly. AD has been responsible for many hospitalizations and mortality, generating high costs for health systems and leading to low quality of life for patients and caregivers. Considering that the Brazilian population is reaching greater life expectancy, approaching around 80 years of age, the incidence of AD also tends to increase significantly. Given this, there is a growing demand for new, more effective therapeutic interventions that not only reduce symptoms but also mitigate the degenerative process. Cannabis sativa, for example, has been widely studied, and its isolated main compounds, CBD and THC, demonstrate positive results in treating symptoms in patients with dementia. However, previous studies show that treatment with the combination of THC and CBD presents more positive results compared to treatment with these compounds used alone. Therefore, the present study aim to investigate the effects of administration combined CBD and THC oil in an animal model of AD. Male Wistar rats will be used, receiving an administration of streptozotocin (STZ, 3 mg/kg, i.c.v.) and treatment with the combined CBD+THC oil (containing 1:1 THC: CBD, 1.0 mg THC + 1.0 mg CBD) for 21 days. Throughout the treatment, behavioral tests of olfactory discrimination, tactile sensitivity, sucrose preference, elevated plus maze, new object recognition, spontaneous alternation, and open field will be carried out. Furthermore, the body mass of the animals will be monitored. At the end of treatment, the animals will be euthanized and their brains will be collected for immunohistochemical analysis (A¿ peptide and Tau protein) and parameters of oxidative stress.