There is still a lot to learn about the effects of marijuana on brain development and the University of Saskatchewan (USask) has just launched the very first study on the effects from smoked cannabis.

USask pharmacologist Robert Laprairie will use a Brain Canada research grant to determine how a mother’s use of cannabis during pregnancy affects the brain of the developing fetus she’s carrying.

He, along with 19 other Canadian neuroscientists were each awarded $100,000 as part of Brain Canada’s Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research Program.

“Following on Canada’s legalization of cannabis in 2018, there is merited concern that people might seek out cannabis either for medicinal or recreational use during pregnancy,” exclaimed Laprairie.

The pharmacologist has said that there is a general misconception among the public that because it’s natural, it’s safe. “But it’s a drug just like any other drug,” said Laprairie.

Laprairie is testing in a rat model the hypothesis that chronic exposure to cannabis with high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content will result in a significant increase in the rat pups’ anxiety and significant reduction in both cognition and sociability. He is joined by USask neuroscientist John Howland, and PhD students Ayat Zagzoog and Tallan Black.

“We think we’re going to see a profound impact on how anxious the animals are, and how well they learn and adapt,” Laprairie said.

The USask team will be using a special inhalation chamber to deliver high THC and high cannabidiol smoke to pregnant rats for 21 days. Following the birth of the pups, the researchers will track their growth, weight, and metabolic outcomes such as how much fat they have.

When the pup are old enough, the researchers will start monitoring them for anxiety-like behaviours, learning and memory tasks, and eventually such things as predisposition to substance use disorders.

Some data on human studies has shown that babies exposed ‘in utero’ to cannabis smoke weigh less and have shorter feet. “There’s some work done on it, but we need to delve deeper into it,” said Laprairie.

According to Laprairie, rats are an appropriate model organism because of the close similarities to humans.

“Their brains go through many of the same developmental processes, and their metabolism of the drug and how their bodies physically respond to the drug are on the order of 95 per cent homologous with our human endocannabinoid system,” he said.

The USask research team is aiming to have manuscripts ready in summer 2021 for submission to high impact journals.

“What we as a team are hoping for is that individuals, policymakers, Health Canada, and health regions will take note of the data we’ve published and integrate it into their policy to recognize and caution people about avoiding cannabis during pregnancy,” remarked Laprairie.

“We’re developing many different cannabis-based medicines. And one of the most important things about a medicine is that you know which populations it shouldn’t be used in.”


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