VCOM Louisiana Research Day Program

Pharmacology

Anawin Kitpowsong, OMS-III 1 ; William Wheeler, OMS-III 1 ; Subash Sapkota 2 ; Karen Briski, PhD 2 ; Dinesh Aryal, PhD 1 1 Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine-Louisiana, Monroe, Louisiana; 2 University of Louisiana Monroe-College of Pharmacy, Monroe, Louisiana 49 CANNABIDIOL (CBD) TREATMENT IN VIVO ATTENUATES HIPPOCAMPAL CA1 NERVE CELL DAMAGE VIA OXIDATIVE STRESS MEDIATED MECHANISM

Background: Recurrent hypoglycemia (RH) during insulin therapy poses a dangerous risk of brain injury supposedly caused by compromised neuronal antioxidant function and/or astrocytes dependent mechanisms. There are no known treatments available to prevent brain injury due to iatrogenic hypoglycemia. The present study focuses on the potential for cannabidiol (CBD), the principal non-psychoactive component of cannabis, to enhance antioxidant protective effects at the CA1 regions in the hippocampus during RH. Methods: Male Sprague Dawley rats weighing 150-200gs were divided into two groups; control and RH (n=15; in each group). Control group received normal saline whereas RH group received 10U/kg insulin (INS i.p.) on 1, 3, 5 & 7 days with blood glucose recording 1 hr after INS injection. Both groups were further divided into three subgroups (n=5) for CBD treatments, with doses of 0, 0.1 and 1mg/kg on days; 6 & 7. Animals were euthanized and brains were isolated, snap frozen with isopentane and stored at -80ºC for analysis. The harvested brains from all the rats were sectioned into 100µ using Leica Cryostat, the CA1 region were micro punched into the microtube containing lysis buffer for protein assay analysis. The lysates were sonicated and analyzed with superoxide

dismutase (SOD) -Elisa kit procured from Cayman Chemical, MI, USA. Results: The recurrent hypoglycemia (Blood glucose: 40-55mg/dl) were observed in RH group of rats. The dose dependent effects of CBD on recurrent hypoglycemia revealed no significant effects on blood-glucose levels in both RH rats and in control euglycemic rats. The SOD expressions were elevated significantly in RH rats treated with CBD at 1mg/kg vs CBD at 0. However, there were no significant changes in SOD levels in control group rats regardless of their CBD treatments. Conclusion: Overall, CBD has no direct effect on insulin function. CBD may protect the antioxidant function and eventually protects nerve cell injury via attenuating the degradation of superoxide dismutase. Oxidative stress is observed to be one of the targets for neuroprotective therapy during iatrogenic hypoglycemic insult. Further investigations are needed to evaluate whether the source of SOD is mitochondrial or cytosolic.

65 2023 Via Research Recognition Day