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Marijuana-like drug a feel-good experience for rats, scientists say
By Hempology | October 14, 2005
SASKATOON A University of Saskatchewan team has shown a marijuana-like drug reduces the symptoms of anxiety and depression in rats.
BY JANET FRENCH CanWest News Service
Using injections of a synthesized substance called HU210, which mimics one of the active ingredients in cannabis, associate professor of psychiatry Dr. Xia Zhang and his colleagues showed new growth of brain cells increased in rats. Other recent studies have linked that growth, or so-called neurogenesis, to a reduction in anxiety and depression.
The results were published Thursday on the website of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The implication of this paper is that smoking marijuana is a good thing, Zhang said with a hearty laugh in his Saskatoon office. Well, good for rats anyway.
We hypothesize cannabis or marijuana can produce a similar effect, Zhang added.
The group, including researchers at Xijing Hospital in China and at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, have yet to test the effect of marijuana itself on rats neurogenesis, Zhang said. He also cautions against the assumption the drug will have the same effect on humans.
There is a big gap between rats and humans, Zhang said. Realistically, we cannot judge these results from rats and apply them to a human situation. Theres a huge difference. Our results can give (only) some indication or implication.
Although previous studies have shown alcohol, nicotine, opiates and cocaine reduce the growth of new brain cells, Zhangs paper is the first to show marijuana could have the opposite effect.
Because rats cant say how depressed they are, researchers used tests such as putting the rats in a swimming pool with no escape to determine how quickly they would give up swimming and resign themselves to a likely fate of drowning. The rats were plucked out of the pool before they could drown.
Whats more exciting to researchers than the potential connection between smoking pot and easing lethargy and frayed nerves is the possibility a component of marijuana could be the next blockbuster antidepressant.
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