A Molecular Link between the Active Component of Marijuana and Alzheimer's Disease Pathology
Abstract: Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia among the elderly, and with the ever-increasing size of this population, cases of Alzheimer's disease are expected to triple over the next 50 years. Consequently, the development of treatments that slow or halt the disease progression have become imperative to both improve the quality of life for patients and reduce the health care costs attributable to Alzheimer's disease. Here, we demonstrate that the active component of marijuana, 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), competitively inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as well as prevents AChE-induced amyloid -peptide (A) aggregation, the key pathological marker of Alzheimer's disease. Computational modeling of the THC-AChE interaction revealed that THC binds in the peripheral anionic site of AChE, the critical region involved in amyloidgenesis. Compared to currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, THC is a considerably superior inhibitor of A aggregation, and this study provides a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which cannabinoid molecules may directly impact the progression of this debilitating disease.
Keywords: Cannabinoids; Alzheimer's disease; acetylcholinesterase
I have my doubts.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/05/2006 12:17 ||
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#1
My theory is that the short term memory loss makes people forget that they have Alzheimers.
#3
Hey, I may be in a minority here ... but if they are retired and therefor are not needed to be productive members of society but should try to avoid being major drains on resources(like Atzheimer's is)... Who cares what they are doing!
#4
If you smoke enough dope, how would you even know if you had alzheimers? But seriously, studying something that takes your memory away, as pot does, may indeed provide some insights. I'm sure it's not hard to get volunteers for their study.
They didn't smoke the stuff! They mixed it with methanol (that's wood alcohol, ie not the drinkin' stuff)!
Actually, and with all seriousness, anything that helps with Alzheimers' would be a blessing for the entire human race (I experienced it up close and personal with a great grandmother while I was growing up - watching her regress progressively to a child was absolutely shattering to a 10-yr old kid; I've also seen it afflict a friend of mine and his wife - they left the states to return to the UK to pursue treatment options that were not legal here, but before they left the degradation of a once gracious lady's personality was heartbreaking to say the least).
Battle lines are indeed being drawn, yet there is a sense that we are in an interregnum, waiting for the next move by our adversaries. During wartime, societies regress and splitting takes on great prominence. Nuance tends to be lost when people feel threatened. The left has made their choice to ally with the Islamists (an opponent of Guantanamo actually suggested on NPR this morning that since we can find no country to take inmates from Gitmo that it is our responsibility to free them and offer residence in the United States). The Islamists continue and accelerate their assaults on Western freedoms and promise more to come.
Horrors occur on a regular basis now and there is a sense of an inexorable slide; storm clouds are gathering. Meanwhile, the Democrats eagerly leap on a sex scandal to avoid addressing the war. ("What war?") Their behavior would be the stuff of comedy routines if there was any justice in the world.
#4
If my last thought was that the being killing me was basically good, I'd be a happy dead guy. At least my last thought was of compassion instead of rage.
What a frakking idiot!
Clearly, this person has never encountered death up close and personal. He has never even experienced, apparently, the death of a close loved one or friend otherwise he would not be so completely naive.
Death is not a friend. Death does not allow you to examine your reactions in a nice, cozy, warm and fuzzy manner. Death is hard, cold, cruel, sharp, and all-to-often - exceedingly painful!
Death is pain and hurt and heartbreak and all that is evil - that it gives us peace is merely a benefit in the overall end that a just God provided for us.
This person is sick to the point of being psychotic.
#5
If my last thought was that the being killing me was basically good, I'd be a happy dead guy. At least my last thought was of compassion instead of rage.
cuz I'd take him with me and I'd be certain my everlasting endplace was cooler and more pleasant than his.?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2006 23:03 Comments ||
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#1
Trailing wife: about the questions you asked me yesterdary. A tablespoon is the kind of spoons used to eat soup (by an adult) not for serving it. In fance we name them cuillères à soupe (soupspoons).
In the recipe it is sweet paprika but I use enough cayenna for the dish being slightly hot.
#2
Then we use "tablespoon" in the same way, JFM -- to equal 15 ml. Thank you for your answers -- I realize I posted late last night. One of these days I'll post a table of equivalences as I received it from the American Women's Club when I moved to Germany -- it proved exceedingly useful to answer questions of measurements, translation of spice names, ingredient substitutions... exactly what you struggled with when trying to find sage in Germany. Since we are a world-wide group here at Rantburg, others may find it helpful as well. :-)
#3
JFM, thank you for the many contributions yesterday. Most accomplished chefs are well able to interpret your meanings and thank goodness we have the ever-thoughtful trailing wife to kindly provide the needed footnotes for everyone else.
Speaking of recipes, trailing wife, if you have never tried it, please give the shepherd's pie a whirl. It is the ultimate In-Sink-Erator recipes for kitchen leftovers and can even be eaten at room temperature as a delicious addition to the lunchbox. The ingredients can be adjusted to whatever dietary restrictions you have without impairing its flavor in the least. Just look for a non-butter or lard-type crust to avoid the dairy-meat prohibition.
#4
I plan to, Zenster -- it does look tasty, and within my cooking skills. I have been suffering reading everyone's delicious pork recipes! I don't go as far as the meat/milk restriction, though, nor even forbid Mr. Wife and the trailing daughters their beloved salami sandwiches, shrimp or pepperoni pizza.
On a one serving basis...
1.25 to 1.5 cups of apple juice
1 stick of cinnimon
2 to 3 whole cloves
1 sliced apple
boil for awhile for the flavor to spread.
Then add 1/2 cup of regular (not instant) oatmeal
cook until oatmeal is tender.
(it will not turn to glue like it does cooking it in water.)
Eat as is (no milk...)
In a bowl combine the ground beef, veal, and pork. Salt to taste. You can increase the ground beef if you can't get ground veal.
Form the mixture into "drumstick" shapes and insert the skewer. Roll the "drumstick" in bread crumbs to coat the meat.
In a frying pan brown the sides of "drumsticks". After browning reduce heat, add some water to the pan, cover and simmer for around an hour untill well done.
Haven't made them in a while so I can't tell you the yield, I think it's around 6. Depends on how big you make them.
Posted by: bruce ||
10/05/2006 14:40 Comments ||
Top||
#7
TW
If you like sauerkraut, I can look for recipes and you can replace the pork with a list of casher delicacies I will provide you.
#9
As I follow the sun across this globe, I have nearly reached a stalling point as we approach the Middle East. A brief search showed me that Indian pork recipes do indeed exist, but rather than bring you the same old red chili miasma, I decided to make something original. So here it is, just for you Rantburgers, a variant on Mexican chile verde, Indian style.
Emerald Curry Cilantro Chile Chutney Marinade
Preparation Time: 1 Hour
Serves: 4-8 People
Ingredients:
1-2 Pounds Medium Lean Pork (Boston Butt or Shoulder)
Marinade:
6 Scallions (chopped Coarsely)
6 Cloves Garlic (peeled and crushed)
¼-½ Cup Chopped Cilantro
¼ Cup Olive Oil
¼ Cup Fresh Lime Juice
2-3 TBS Chopped Green Chile (Serrano or Jalapeño)
1 TBS Grated Ginger
1-2 TSP Green Curry Paste (Thai Kitchen is quite good)
1 ½ TSP Sugar
1 TSP Sea Salt
1 TSP Ground Cumin
½ TSP Ground Coriander Seed
Options:
Coconut milk
Spring onions instead of scallions
Preparation:
Mix all marinade ingredients and blend thoroughly. Marinate cubed pork for two hours or overnight. Arrange on pre-soaked bamboo skewers. Grill over medium coals, brushing occasionally with some of the marinade.
Make a sauce from the marinade by adding some chicken stock, for extra sweetness include a little coconut milk, and then thicken with some cornstarch. Temper the sauce by mixing a little of the hot marinade with the cornstarch that has been dissolved in some water. Slowly add small amounts of the dissolved cornstarch to the sauce and bring to a gentle boil then reduce heat.
Notes: Serve over steamed rice or saffron rice with carrots and peas (pilaf). Chapatis or roti type flatbreads will go quite well with this dish.
When Nicaraguans go to the polls on Nov. 5 to elect their next president, they may end up choosing an old-time communist who could win without even getting a majority of the votes. A victory by Daniel Ortega, whose brutal Sandinista rule in the Central American country ended 16 years ago, is a growing likelihood because of millions being pumped into his campaign by the stridently anti-U.S. Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez. Add to the mix indifference from the U.S. State Department, and Chavez and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro will have a new ally in their growing axis of anti-American states south of the border. Despite defeats at the polls in 1990, 1996, and 2001, Ortega once again is poised to head Nicaragua he is the frontrunner among five candidates in the national elections.
While Nicaraguans will be the ones to suffer the most from an Ortega victory, fiercely anti-American Hugo Chavez hopes to replicate the recent electoral success of fellow radical Evo Moralez in Bolivia with a similar win in Central America.
Reich insists that Ortega's standing in the polls is due greatly to funding received from Chavez, who is financing the Sandinistas both openly and secretly. By providing the Sandinista mayors of many Nicaraguan towns with subsidized oil and diesel fuel, he is helping them buy votes. But Reich adds that Chavez also is funneling cash to Ortega secretly, which is illegal under Nicaraguan law. While Nicaragua allows foreign campaign contributions from private citizens, foreign government financing of candidates is strictly forbidden.
Ortega and the Sandinistas are also being aided by the democratic opposition's disunity. The anti-Ortega vote is primarily divided among three candidates. Most polls place Ortega with about 30 percent of the vote, followed closely by Eduardo Montealegre with support in the 20s, and two other candidates further behind. Nearly 20 percent of respondents are undecided. Clearly the anti-Sandinista vote surpasses the Sandinistas, but if the democratic opposition doesn't quickly unite, Ortega and the Sandinistas can win in the first round on Nov. 5, thanks to sly maneuvering by pro-Ortega forces:
#3
This just might be a good thing, we can then revive Operation Plowshare to dig that sealevel canal across Nicaragua.
Posted by: bruce ||
10/05/2006 16:51 Comments ||
Top||
#4
As long as the Chinese don't arm them they'll just be harmless little darlings of the left, laughing, giggling, and shitting themselves in their purity and poverty.
#2
Seems like a pretty bright guy to me, A5089. What did I miss?
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/05/2006 13:03 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I read the exerpts in Atlantic... de Tocqueville he ain't.
He practically gave John Kerry a warm soppy tongue-bath because he speaks French for god's sakes. Couldn't figure out why all us peons weren't voting for the traitorous b*****d, when JFK II was so charming and erudite.
If BHL couldn't figure out that, then I don't give him much credit as an observer of the American scene.
But it's nice not to be totally slimed by a French intellectual superstar. It has the charm of the unexpected.
#6
He was clearly disgusted by the senior Machiavellian Bushite who told him privately that the notorious WMD claim was a necessary lie.
I didn't get any further. That said all I needed to know.
I suppose overall this is a good thing. If the French are defined by their hatred to America, perhaps this vain celebrity will grant them some freedom from their restraints. This article makes me wonder if that vaunted Euro street is indeed beginning to wake up and smell the expresso.
#8
Better, he says, that America topples dictators than props them up. We complain whatever America does, and we complain loudest when America does nothing. [Here I break for an emphasis that the writer himself missed.]
And while Europeans sneer at President George Bushs dumbness, many neocons have a grasp of ancient philosophy that would shame our politicians.
I believe, he declares, in the principles of the French revolution and human rights. [The continuation brings in the critical point, going back to it being better that America act than that it stay uninvolved.] And these are based on Kants insistence that there is a morality; that some acts, like Saddam Husseins genocide, are evil. And if you really object, morality compels you to intervene.
So why has France been quite so vitriolic about America? France and Germany, he corrects in fluent English. It has nothing to do with what America does and was long before Iraq. It is about the idea of America, Rousseaus social contract, where you decide to join a society. Its people have no roots, no memory. This is seen as an insult to what a real community should be, which is about blood and the soil. [Yep, Americans are Rousseauian idealists in action, whereas the heart of Europe is a bunch of old fogy blood'n'soil racists. No wonder they hate us.]
it hardly explains the rabid anti-Americanism of the trendy left.
Ah, that is due to relativism. Left and right meet on foreign policy. Both extremes agree, argues BHL, that the West should not intervene in the Third World: the right because it sees anyone brown-skinned as a savage who wouldnt understand democracy, the left as it dare not impose systems on nice brown people for fear of being branded imperialist. [Ah, our old friend, the idea that the opposite of both right and left is the reasonable center.]
But if he thinks America will remain dominant for years, what is the state of Europe? Not so healthy, he says, looking down. There is a fear of the future and a sense of crisis.
As a federalist who wishes Europe would follow the perfect American model he despairs at Europes chauvinism and nationalism. BHL ruminates on the possibility of living in New York full-time to escape provincialism.
And with that BHL sweeps off towards the Seine, painfully aware that it is America that holds all the cards.
Lots of pins in this haystack, in my opinion. The medicine is sweetened with the kind of sugar superiour Englishmen and Frenchmen insist on, but there still is an awful lot of medicine. When the late Jean-Francois Revel, the renowned French journalist-philosopher went to an overtly pro-American stance unsugared by the kind of petty nonsense seen in this interview, he was ostracised and fired from his job, his message subsequently ignored by those who most needed to hear it. This Bernard-Henri Lévy will not risk.
#3
We were told about one female medic who had to have major reconstructive surgery on her face following a detainee assault. She was too close to the beanhole (door opening) and the detainee was able to reach out, grab her head, and pull her face-first into the steel frame of the door, shattering most of the facial bone structure.
Dig a big pit in the exercise yard, pull in a CONEX box, put that fellow in it along with a few feeder pigs and let the rest of them bury him using their hands. I doubt the problem would have arisen again.
#4
"the detainee was able to reach out, grab her head, and pull her face-first into the steel frame of the door, shattering most of the facial bone structure"
#1
I was hoping when I first started reading about IWPR that they would do more reporting on the reconstruction. After reading Kat's story I think that I will spend some time going back through goverement press releases about reconstruction. The impression that I have receieved from traditional sources is that nothing has been done.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/05/2006 1:00 Comments ||
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#2
I've posted a couple of these, but they seem pretty dry (pun intended) except to mebbe Frank and Alaska Paul.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/05/2006 6:28 Comments ||
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#3
Is it news domestically if they finish the new sewage plant or rebuild the interchange? Maybe for the locals for whom it removes what was a pain in the rear, but not for anyone else. These are inherently unexciting stories. Most of progress is pretty dull. That is why our children should be prepared for lives that are largely dull and boring.
And that's why the media says, "If it bleeds, it leads." Whether locally or internationally.
The underlying assumption in criticism of the MSM is that its purpose is to present the truth, or important information for truth seekers. It is not. It's primary purpose is to mesmerize eyeballs for advertisers to assault. It does this by shock and awe of the senses of ordinary people leading the dull and boring lives that are so crucial to creating the order necessary to sustain the plodding march of progress and wealth creation.
I find myself not wanting to waste precious time commenting on the mainstream news story(1) about the Gwinnett County Georgia mom who wants Harry Potter books taken out of the elementary school because the series encourages "witchcraft and evil." However, the fact that the school board is even considering her request compels me to write a column in order to lend some much needed perspective to this particular uninformed and inane distraction from larger concerns in the area of school reform and religious indoctrination.
To begin, I must disclose that I whole heartedly agree with Gwinnett County, Georgia Schools attorney Victoria Sweenys opinion that, Harry Potter promotes reading and good values. Furthermore, she is absolutely correct when she says that, The major themes are good versus evil, overcoming adversity, loyalty, friendship and courage," which I believe are all important ideas for kids to consider during their formative years. More needs to be said, though, in order to frame this ridiculous issue in its proper context.
We are facing clear and immediate dangers to our way of life and shouldnt waste time entertaining the paranoid delusions of any person(s) declaring that Wicca is being proselytized through the Harry Potter series, especially anyone who hasnt bothered to read an entire book. Indeed, from everything Ive ever read about Wicca, it is a very peaceful practice. A good site to read more can be found here: http://www.wicca.com/celtic/wicca/wicca.htm.
They sit in economy class occasionally wiping their clammy hands. Their eyes dart furtively about. They wonder whether the stewardess or passenger next to them might have become suspicious. Some even grow moustaches or beards - to cover the 'giveaway' sweating top lip.
But they are not terrorists. At least not in the modern sense of wanting to blow up the airplanes they travel in. Far from it, for they love nothing more the sense of self-importance international jetsetting offers. Travelling that delivers them in far-flung destinations where they can evangelize their ascetic ordinances to thousands of fellow worshippers. But while travelling their chief fear is that they will be found out. Who they are, what they preach - and expose their moralistic hypocritical behaviour.
They are the Green Bigots, leading environmentalists, those at the vanguard of the fight to change our lifestyles, restrict our foreign flights, who insist we do our 'bit' to cut greenhouse gas emissions while they rack up thousands of airmiles on business and pleasure trips."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/05/2006 08:38 ||
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#1
Ya beat me to posting it, Frank, heh. Great article. Professional parasites. Do as I say, not as I do.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/05/2006 13:11 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Jeez, ya mean they're full of shit?
Well, can ya beat that...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia among the elderly, and with the ever-increasing size of this population, cases of Alzheimer's disease are expected to triple over the next 50 years. Consequently, the development of treatments that slow or halt the disease progression have become imperative to both improve the quality of life for patients and reduce the health care costs attributable to Alzheimer's disease. Here, we demonstrate that the active component of marijuana, 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), competitively inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as well as prevents AChE-induced amyloid -peptide (A) aggregation, the key pathological marker of Alzheimer's disease. Computational modeling of the THC-AChE interaction revealed that THC binds in the peripheral anionic site of AChE, the critical region involved in amyloidgenesis. Compared to currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, THC is a considerably superior inhibitor of A aggregation, and this study provides a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which cannabinoid molecules may directly impact the progression of this debilitating disease.
They sit in economy class occasionally wiping their clammy hands. Their eyes dart furtively about. They wonder whether the stewardess or passenger next to them might have become suspicious. Some even grow moustaches or beards - to cover the 'giveaway' sweating top lip. 
