Research Scholar
Yannick Marchalant, Department of Psychology
Gary Wenk, Faculty advisor
Holly Brothers, Co-Researcher
Biography
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Yannick Marchalant is a French citizen. I obtained in April 2004 a PhD in Neurociences from the University of Caen, France, studying the impact of brain cholinergic lesion on the vascular system in rats to clarify the vascular component of Alzheimer disease. Since then, I have been working in Dr. Gary L Wenk's lab first at the University of Arizona, then at Ohio State University, in studying the influence of neuroinflammation in normal aging and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, with a particular interest in the possible benefits from stimulating the endocannabinoid system to counteract the inflammation-related damaged observed during aging.
About the Research
We are currently investigating the benefits of using marijuana-derived drugs to slow the onset of aging and Alzheimer's disease.
Despite the well-know psychoactive effect of the recreational drug Marijuana, the last decade has seen the development of the promising therapeutic opportunities linked to the modulation of the system in the brain that is stimulated by cannabis: the endocannabinoid system. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the potential beneficial properties of manipulation of the endocannabinoid system, particularly in diseases where scientists have found evidence of brain inflammation, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. In degenerative diseases, the brain's immune response is turned on and stays activated for a long time. The extended and possibly inappropriate use of this defense system can cause damage to the brain and ultimately change the way that it functions. These changes may affect thought processes and memory.
Through observation of brain inflammation in old rats, we investigated the possible beneficial outcome of treatment with a synthetic drug that mimics the activation of the endocannabinoid system by marijuana. After a few weeks of treatment, we tested the rats' memory. We previously discovered that in both young and old rats, treatment with this marijuana-like drug clearly reduced brain inflammation, particularly in a region involved in memory processing: the hippocampus. Moreover, this drug was effective at a dose that did not produce any psychoactive effects in the rats. This effect seems to be carried by the TRPV1 receptor inducing the release of anti-inflammatory molecules and not by the CB1 receptor (responsible for the psychoactive effects of Marijuana). Moreover, in the old rats, treatment with the marijuana-like drug also improved their memory and this benefit correlated with the reduction in brain inflammation in the hippocampus of those animals. We also recently demonstrated the neurogenic effect (increasing production of new neurons) of that compound on aged animals, potentially explaining the improvement of the memory processes observed in those aged animals.
We have discovered a clear beneficial effect of the stimulation of the brain's own cannabinoid system. The anti-inflammatory, memory enhancing and neurogenic effects of this type of medication could prove effective in improving normal aging as well as in treating inflammation-related disorders occurring later in life like Alzheimer's disease.
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