TY - JOUR
T1 - Long-term consequences of a single treatment of mice with an ultra-low dose of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
AU - Amal, Haitham
AU - Fridman-Rozevich, Lilach
AU - Senn, Roey
AU - Strelnikov, Anastasia
AU - Gafni, Mikhal
AU - Keren, Ora
AU - Sarne, Yosef
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Israel Anti-drug-Authority and by the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 180/04 ).
PY - 2010/1/20
Y1 - 2010/1/20
N2 - A single administration of an extremely low dose (0.002 mg/kg) of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana) to ICR mice induced long-term cognitive deficits that lasted for at least 5 months. The behavioral deficits were detected by several tests that evaluated different aspects of memory and learning, including spatial navigation and spatial and non-spatial recognition. Our findings point to possible deficits in attention or motivation that represent a common upstream cognitive process that may affect the performance of the mice in the different behavioral assays. Similar ultra-low doses of THC (3-4 orders of magnitude lower than doses that are known to evoke the acute effects of THC) also induced sustained activation of extracellular-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) in the cerebellum, indicating that a single injection of such low doses of the cannabinoid drug can stimulate neuronal regulatory mechanisms. The relevance of these findings to the behavioral consequences of chronic exposure to marijuana is discussed.
AB - A single administration of an extremely low dose (0.002 mg/kg) of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana) to ICR mice induced long-term cognitive deficits that lasted for at least 5 months. The behavioral deficits were detected by several tests that evaluated different aspects of memory and learning, including spatial navigation and spatial and non-spatial recognition. Our findings point to possible deficits in attention or motivation that represent a common upstream cognitive process that may affect the performance of the mice in the different behavioral assays. Similar ultra-low doses of THC (3-4 orders of magnitude lower than doses that are known to evoke the acute effects of THC) also induced sustained activation of extracellular-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) in the cerebellum, indicating that a single injection of such low doses of the cannabinoid drug can stimulate neuronal regulatory mechanisms. The relevance of these findings to the behavioral consequences of chronic exposure to marijuana is discussed.
KW - Cannabinoid drugs
KW - Cognitive deficits
KW - Extracellular-regulated kinase (ERK)
KW - Learning and memory
KW - Marijuana
KW - Recognition tests
KW - Spatial learning tests
KW - Δ-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=70350345257&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.09.021
DO - 10.1016/j.bbr.2009.09.021
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AN - SCOPUS:70350345257
SN - 0166-4328
VL - 206
SP - 245
EP - 253
JO - Behavioural Brain Research
JF - Behavioural Brain Research
IS - 2
ER -