One of the most exciting and promising areas of marijuana research in recent years comes from Isreali researcher Dedi Meiri from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He is known for his work matching various components of cannabis with their efficacy in treating a large variety of cancers. His main focus is to not only determine the anti-tumor effects of cannabinoids but also the anti-metastatic effects that cannabinoids exert on a spectrum of tumor cells. He is trying to understand which of the hundreds of cannabinoids affect which cancers and how they affect these cancers. He is currently working with about 15 types of the most common cancers. Professor Meiri predicts that within a few years there will be specific cannabinoid treatments of specific cancers.
When interviewed by Forbes magazine in June of 2020, he was asked which areas of medicine he thought cannabis offered the most promise. His surprising answer was dementia and Alzheimer’s. This is an area where the benefits of pharmaceuticals are minimal and the side effects plentiful. His lab is investigating the effects of cultivars and combinations of cannabinoids on neuroprotection. He has determined a number of cannabinoid cultivars which reduce the amyloid plaque of Alsheimer’s. His lab has identified the mechanisms that are activated in the brain, how it occurs and why they are reducing the plaque. The has seen marked improvement in mice with advanced Alzheimer’s with these various compounds. These results not only showed improvement in the brain from the damage of the amyloid plaques but showed improvement in the behavior of the rats as evidenced with specific tests.
Dedi MeiriPhD is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Biology at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and a member of the Technion Integrated Cancer Center.
David G. Balter MD
Medical Marijuana Doctor
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