• Marijuana is becoming increasingly legalised internationally and many people are wondering if it can help with Parkinson’s disease
• There have been few scientific trials mainly because the substance is still illegal in many places
• Despite some potentially negative effects, experts believe that dagga might ease symptoms like muscle and joint pain, anxiety and insomnia

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At a conference hosted two years ago by the Parkinson’s Foundation, many neurologists had a pressing issue on their minds: pot.

“Doctors were saying that the number one question from their patients was, ‘Can I use medical cannabis for my Parkinson’s disease?'” recalled James Beck, the foundation’s senior vice president and chief scientific officer.

The answer isn’t a simple one, according to a summary of dagga use recommendations that was prompted by that question and published recently by the Parkinson’s Foundation.

Researchers have studied the use of cannabis in patients with Parkinson’s disease for more than 20 years, but there are precious few randomised, controlled clinical trials, partly because the drug is still illegal under federal law, explained Susan Fox, director of neurology at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.

A ‘mixed bag’

But the growing legalisation of marijuana has spurred interest. “When people hear that something is legalised, they think it’s safe to use,” Fox said. She added that her patients ask her if they should try using marijuana “a lot”.

That high level of interest prompted Parkinson’s Foundation experts to analyse all of the existing research related to marijuana and Parkinson’s disease.

The end result was a mixed bag.

The foundation’s experts found that many of the typical side effects of marijuana can exacerbate symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Marijuana can cause diminished balance and sudden drops in blood pressure, which can be especially dangerous for people with Parkinson’s disease, who are already prone to low blood pressure and impaired movement.

“The combination of cannabis and Parkinson’s disease can lead to falls, which is a big concern and one of the leading causes of mortality for people with Parkinson’s disease,” said Beck. Since the disease affects people in their 60s or older, a fall can be devastating, especially for people with a chronic condition like Parkinson’s.

Easing of symptoms

Marijuana may also amplify muddy thinking and hallucinations, two other common Parkinson’s symptoms. “If people are already having trouble with hallucinations or paranoia, it’s probably best not to consider taking a drug like cannabis that could make those symptoms worse,” Beck noted.

Despite the risks and limited research, experts believe that marijuana might ease symptoms like muscle and joint pain, anxiety and insomnia.

“If someone is looking to experiment, [pain, anxiety and insomnia] are reasonable things to think cannabis might be helpful for,” Beck said. “But it’s not going to help them with their tremors or the progression of their Parkinson’s disease.”

Beck did note that marijuana use could also help some patients who have a hard time maintaining their weight, as it is known to generate an appetite.

The foundation’s statement covers not only the side effects, but also the lack of effects.

“This is an issue where there may be some symptomatic benefits, but it’s not likely to help with the motor symptoms, the symptoms like tremors or slowness of movements,” Beck said.

Go ‘low and slow’

Parkinson’s patients who choose to use marijuana are advised to start with small doses and work their way up, depending on how the drug affects them, the foundation advised.

While the statement does not recommend any particular method of consuming marijuana products, Beck said that patients should be especially careful with edible forms, which can take a while to reach peak dosage in the bloodstream, potentially causing people to overdose. People with Parkinson’s disease also tend to have a slowed digestive system, which can further delay the drug from reaching peak dosage.

“The key is really to go low, in terms of dosage, and go slow as you increase,” said Beck. “That way, the side effects can be understood and mitigated.”

The foundation’s guidance for doctors is to be both accepting and honest with their patients.

“Doctors need to be open to this so that their patients will tell them what’s going on, and they can use that information to ensure that their patients are as safe as possible,” said Beck. “It’s best to be supportive of what they’re doing, but also to be frank about the lack of strong evidence to demonstrate that cannabis is effective for anything with Parkinson’s disease.”

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A large number of the valley networks scarring Mars’s surface were carved by water melting beneath glacial ice, not by free-flowing rivers as previously thought, according to new UBC research published today in Nature Geoscience. The findings effectively throw cold water on the dominant “warm and wet ancient Mars” hypothesis, which postulates that rivers, rainfall and oceans once existed on the red planet.

Despite enormous efforts to advance traditional pharmacology approaches, more than three quarters of all human proteins remain beyond the reach of therapeutic development. Targeted protein degradation (TPD) is a novel approach that could overcome this and other limitations, and thus represents a promising therapeutic strategy. TPD is based on small molecules, generally called”degraders,” which can eliminate disease-causing proteins by causing their destabilization. Mechanistically, these degrader drugs repurpose the cellular protein quality control system, tweaking it to recognize and eliminate harmful proteins. In detail, they re-direct members of the protein family of E3 ubiquitin ligases (E3s) towards the disease-causing target protein. This leads to a “molecular earmarking” of the harmful protein via a process called “ubiquitination.” Subsequently, the ubiquitinated protein is recognized and degraded by the molecular machine called the proteasome, which serves as the cellular garbage disposal system.

A current problem for a wide range of chemists is when stirring a solution in the laboratory there is a need to check the properties of the solution and monitor how they change.

The rapid tests for hospitals and care homes will distinguish between Covid-19 and seasonal illness.

Critically ill children with suspected genetic illnesses in Wales are to be offered a new NHS test in UK first.

• Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are common in senior citizens
• Some people, however, remain sharp well into their 90s and a study wanted to find out why 
• Factors like ‘life satisfaction’ and carrying on working past retirement age seem to help to keep minds sharp 

Some people in their 90s stay sharp whether their brain harbours amyloid protein plaques – a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease – or not, but why?

That’s the question researchers sought answers for among 100 people without dementia, average age 92, who were followed for up to 14 years. Their answer? A combination of genetic luck and a healthy, fulfilling lifestyle.

“The vast majority of research studies on ageing and Alzheimer’s disease try to understand what factors predict disease and memory impairment. We turned these questions upside-down, asking ‘What seems to protect us from disease and impairment in our 90s?'” said lead researcher Beth Snitz, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Pittsburgh.

“Understanding this kind of resilience may well help identify ways to prevent dementia,” Snitz added.

Mutation linked to lower plaque

The study reinforces some things scientists already knew, such as the importance of good cardiovascular health and building up a “cognitive [mental] reserve. These likely can help buffer against the effects of brain disease or injury later in life,” she said.

Her team also found that people whose scores were normal on thinking and memory tests when the study began were less likely to have problems with their thinking skills, even if they had amyloid protein plaques in their brains (which have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease).

The researchers also found that those with the APOE2 gene mutation, which has been tied to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, were less likely to develop amyloid plaques than people who did not have this gene variant.

In fact, the APOE2 mutation was linked with a six times lower risk of developing plaques, the findings showed.

This mutation, however, is rare, occurring in only 10% of the people in the study. Among those with the mutation, 70% didn’t develop plaques, the study authors noted.

Higher pulse pressure

Some lifestyle factors also affected brain ageing. For example, those who never smoked were over 10 times more likely to keep their thinking skills, even with plaques, than smokers.

Also, high pulse pressure was linked with an increase in plaques. Pulse pressure is the systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) minus the diastolic pressure (bottom number). Pulse pressure gets higher with age and is a sign of ageing of the blood vessels.

The benefits of APOE2 alleles are well known, as is the link between smoking and poor cardiovascular health, said Dr Sam Gandy, associate director of the Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

Also, the link between poor cardiovascular health and dementia is well-known.

“The pulse pressure story here has emerged lately, as has the apparent risk of overaggressive lowering of the blood pressure in chronic hypertensives [those with chronic high blood pressure], and an apparent association between dementia risk and erratic blood pressure,” he said.

Other studies have found a benefit from exercise in preventing dementia, but this study didn’t look at exercise, Snitz said. They also didn’t look at the effect of maintaining an active social life or mental activities, such as reading, on preventing dementia, she said.

Life satisfaction protective

The investigators did find, however, that having a paying job in your 70s was protective against later memory decline.

“Other studies have shown that continuing to work – or perhaps to keep one’s mind engaged – past conventional retirement age may be cognitively protective,” Snitz said.

“We also found that ‘life satisfaction’ in the 70s was protective against later cognitive decline in the 80s and 90s,” she added.

The report was published online in the journal Neurology.

Maria Corrada, a professor of epidemiology at the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders at the University of California, Irvine, said, “Some of the characteristics found to be related to resistance and resilience to Alzheimer’s pathology can be changed or modified – pulse pressure, smoking, paid work and life satisfaction.”

Achieving these goals may be a way to be resistant or resilient to brain abnormalities associated with Alzheimer’s disease, said Corrada, who co-authored an accompanying journal editorial.

“We believe that there are things we can do with our lifestyle that can help us maintain good cognitive health,” she said.

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