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A new target for marijuana
- Date:
- October 17, 2017
- Source:
- Society for Neuroscience
- Summary:
- Cellular-level changes to a part of the brain's reward system induced by chronic exposure to the psychoactive component of marijuana may contribute to the drug's pleasurable and potentially addictive qualities, suggests a study in young mice.
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Cellular-level changes to a part of the brain's reward system induced by chronic exposure to the psychoactive component of marijuana may contribute to the drug's pleasurable and potentially addictive qualities, suggests a study in young mice published in JNeurosci. The results could advance our understanding of marijuana's effects on the developing brain as the drug's rapidly changing legal status increases its recreational and medical use in the United States.
Drugs of abuse impact the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain, which is rich in dopamine neurons. Using juvenile and adolescent mice, Jeffrey Edwards and colleagues investigated the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical in marijuana responsible for its effects on cognition and behavior, on VTA GABA cells, an understudied inhibitory cell type in the reward system that regulates dopamine levels.
The authors found that a week of daily THC injections, but not a single injection, blocked the recovery of synapses onto VTA GABA cells in the mice. This finding suggests that persistent THC may alter the inhibitory function of these cells, increasing dopamine levels and the rewarding features of marijuana. These GABA neurons may represent a promising new target for treatment of cannabis use disorder, a common condition on the rise in the United States.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Society for Neuroscience. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
- Lindsey Friend, Jared Weed, Philip Sandoval, Teresa Nufer, Isaac Ostlund, Jeffrey G. Edwardsa. CB1-Dependent Long-Term Depression in Ventral Tegmental Area GABA Neurons: a Novel Target for Marijuana. The Journal of Neuroscience, 2017; 0190-17 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0190-17.2017
Cite This Page:
Society for Neuroscience. "A new target for marijuana." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 October 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171016132754.htm>.
Society for Neuroscience. (2017, October 17). A new target for marijuana. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 24, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171016132754.htm
Society for Neuroscience. "A new target for marijuana." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171016132754.htm (accessed August 24, 2025).
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