U of A studies use of pot to treat MS, Alzheimer’s
EDMONTON A new donation is fuelling research at the University of Alberta into the use of medical cannabis to treat some incurable diseases.
The $300,000 in funding from Atlas Biotechnologies, an Edmonton-based medical cannabis producer, will back studies into the effectiveness of using the drug to treat multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease.
Many people already use cannabis to cope with these diseases, but researchers hope to find some scientific backing for the anecdotal success stories.
“There isn’t solid scientific evidence for most of what people are saying about cannabis,” said Ross Tsuyuki, who is supervising the research in his role as the chair of the U of A’s department of pharmacology.
“We have the researchers that know these conditions that are possible targets for where cannabis could be beneficial.”
The money comes as an unrestricted donation, meaning the U of A solely determined what the funds would be used for, without any outside influence.
It’s different from some funding partnerships between corporations and post-secondary institutions in which the donor can decide what researchers study and how their findings are used.
“The thing that we’re conscious of is that we can’t have industry driving the research. We have to have our independence,” Tsuyuki said.
“We need to have the freedom to design experiments in ways that are scientifically valid and to get the best answer possible.”
Along with fellow pharmacology professor Bradley Kerr, Anne Taylor is heading up a study into the use of cannabinoids to treat chronic pain that patients with
MS experience.
She hopes her research can help limit the use of opioids for pain management.
“We are living in an opioid epidemic. There’s a strong need to develop novel, non-addicting therapies to try and manage chronic pain,” Taylor said.
“We’re interested in utilizing the utility of cannabis, or cannabinoids, as being one of those types of drugs.”
The research aims to delve beyond the two best-known cannabis compounds, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), and examine the medical properties of some of the other 500 compounds active in cannabis.
Tsuyuki said that he hopes to continue research following the two years of funding to better determine what compounds of cannabis are most effective and eventually begin clinical trials.