Scientific advisory board members of Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc., a Canadian licensed medical cannabis company, have co-authored a study suggesting THCA shows neuroprotective activity and is “worth consideration for the treatment of Huntington’s Disease and possibly other neuroinflammatory diseases.”
THCA is the precursor cannabinoid to THC and has no psychotropic effect. THCA converts into THC as the plant dries but the process is sped up by smoking, vaping, or otherwise decarboxylating cannabis. The researchers purport THCA activates a pathway that is thought to be a neuroprotectant.
The research was conducted at Instituto Maimónides de Investigación Biomédica de Córdoba in Spain. Dr. Eduardo Muñoz, Ph.D., Emerald Health’s chief scientific officer, and co-author of the paper, said that in some cases patients with neurodegenerative diseases do not respond to traditional therapies.
There are more than 600 neurological disorders which impact an estimated 50 million Americans every year.
“Our research data provide further evidence that cannabinoids hold therapeutic potential for a wide range of diseases and conditions, including neurodegeneration, which represents a significant unmet medical need,” said Muñoz, who also serves as an immunology professor at the University of Córdoba, in a press release.
The article, “Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid is a potent PPARγ agonist with neuroprotective activity,” was published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.