A major challenge for successful treatment of cocaine addiction is to effectively reduce both chronic cocaine intake and long-lasting susceptibility to relapse. Various medications to treat cocaine addiction are currently in use, but with largely unimpr...

DNA-damaging agents remain the main standard care treatment for patients diagnosed with gliomas. Evidence suggests that the non-psychotropic cannabis-derived compound, cannabidiol (CBD), has antineoplastic activity in multiple subtypes of cancers, inclu...

Backgrounds: Previous studies suggest that there are sex differences in response to exogenous cannabinoids. Unfortunately data from animal and clinical studies comparing cannabinoid effects between males and females, under controlled laboratory conditio...

We have previously shown that lose-shift responding, wherein animals tend to switch actions following reward omission, is disrupted in rats by infusion of D-amphetamine into the dorsolateral striatum or by systemic injection of D-amphetamine. If this be...

The effects of marijuana and THC on time perception are well documented. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie these effects. The present series of experiments examined the effects of THC (0.01-5.0 mg/kg) and of the CB-1 antagonist SR-141716 (0.01-3.0 mg/kg) using a 10-14 second temporal response differentiation schedule in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Under this schedule, subjects were required to make a continuous response on an operant lever for at least 10, but not more than 14 seconds. Releasing the lever within this 10-14 second window resulted in food pellet delivery. Failure to release the lever within this 10-14 second window had no programmed consequences. Acute administration of SR-141716 shifted the distribution of response durations to the right, perhaps suggesting a slowing of the internal timer. In a separate experiment, acute administration of THC produced a generalized disruption in task performance but did not systematically alter the distribution of TRD response durations....

Recent reports have shown that Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) stimulates locomotor activity at low doses (≤2.0 mg/kg), while higher doses (>2.0 mg/kg) produce decreases in spontaneous activity. Using quantitative [14C]2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) autoradiography we have systematically studied the effects of acute Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol in these dose ranges on rates of local cerebral glucose utilization. The present series of experiments was designed to determine if THC-mediated changes in cerebral metabolism followed a clear dose-response relationship. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with either vehicle or THC (0.25, 1.0, or 2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) and the 2-DG procedure was initiated 15 min following exposure. Administration of 2.5 mg/kg THC produced significant decreases in cerebral metabolism in most brain regions studied. In contrast, administration of the two lower doses (0.25, 1.0 mg/kg) of THC produced more restricted effects on metabolism. Significant decreases in metabolism were limited to anterior ...

Considerable anecdotal reports suggest that marijuana enhances palatability, however there has been little direct experimental evidence for these claims. The taste reactivity (TR) test is a direct measure of palatability in rats. The taste reactivity (TR) test was used to evaluate the potential of THC to modify sucrose palatability as measured by the frequency of tongue protrusions. On each of the 9 test trials, rats were injected with either THC (0.5 mg/kg) or vehicle 30, 60 or 120 minutes prior to receiving a 5 min intraoral infusion of 2%, 10% and 32% sucrose solution. The TR test revealed that at 120 min post-injection THC increased the palatability of sucrose solution, regardless of the concentration. Current experiments are investigating the effects of THC on quinine palatability using the TR test.

The popularization of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), including the JUUL® device, in recent years stimulates the need for preclinical models examining this method of drug delivery. The appearance of third-party refillable pods, which can be...

The current opioid abuse crisis highlights the need for alternative pain medications. Cannabis has been proposed as a less addictive pain treatment, but cannabis is composed of many psychoactive substances and the effects on different pain conditions ar...

Previously, we have demonstrated that extremely low doses of THC may be a potential therapy for Alzheimer’s disease in the N2a/APPswe cell line. Here, we have identified the potential mechanism of THC as a treatment for AD in the paper. We completed an ...