The molecule known as cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychotropic cannabinoid, from the Cannabis Sativa plant has shown to improve ketamine-induced cognitive impairment, in a study conducted at Tel Aviv University in Israel.
The researchers analyzed the effect of antipsychotic and pro-cognitive activity that CBD has been shown to have in different human and animal studies for schizophrenia.
“Here, we examined the behavioral effects of CBD in a pharmacological model of schizophrenia-like cognitive deficits induced by repeated ketamine administration (KET). In parallel, we evaluated the transcriptional changes behind CBD activities in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the main area of the brain linked to schizophrenia-like pathologies.”
The preclinical study was conducted on male Sprague-Dawley rats who were injected for 10 days with KET followed by 6 days of CBD. Cognitive performance was assessed in the new object recognition test followed by PFC dissections for next-generation sequencing analysis (RNA-Seq) and bioinformatics.
“We observed that KET-induced learning deficits were rescued by CBD (7.5 mg/kg). Similarly, CBD reversed the transcriptional changes induced by KET. Most of the genes affected by KET and KET-CBD were assigned to astroglial and microglial cells and were associated with immune processes that mediate synaptogenesis and neuronal plasticity. These genes include complement cascade elements C1qc, C1qa, C1qb, C2 and C3, Irf8 factor and gpr84, gpr34, Cx3cr1, P2ry12 and P2ry6 receptors. The main pathway regulators that were predicted to be involved included TGFβ1 and IFNγ.”
According to the conclusions, CBD particularly regulated the rise of oxytocin mRNA in the PFC.
“Current data suggest that KET induces cognitive deficits and transcriptional changes in PFC and that both effects are sensitive to a reversal by CBD treatment,” the research concluded.
Full study:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31823199/
in Costa Rica. 
