“Progressive neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson Disease (PD) lack curative or long-term treatments”, states the study’s abstract. “At the same time, the increase of the worldwide elderly population and, consequently, the extension in the prevalence of age-related diseases have promoted research interest in neurodegenerative disorders.”

For this study researchers “evaluated cannabidiol (CBD) as a possible neuroprotective compound in PD using the C. elegans models exposed to reserpine.”

Researchers state that “Our results demonstrated that CBD reversed the reserpine-induced locomotor alterations and this response was independent of the NPR-19 receptors, an orthologous receptor for central cannabinoid receptor type 1. Morphological alterations of cephalic sensilla (CEP) dopaminergic neurons indicated that CBD also protects neurons from reserpine-induced degeneration.”

That is, “CBD attenuates the reserpine-induced increase of worms with shrunken soma and dendrites loss, increasing the number of worms with intact CEP neurons.”

Finally, researchers “found that CBD also reduced ROS formation and α-syn protein accumulation in mutant worms.”

The study concludes: “Our findings collectively provide new evidence that CBD acts as neuroprotector in dopaminergic neurons, reducing neurotoxicity and α-syn accumulation highlighting its potential in the treatment of PD.”

For more information on this study, including its full abstract, you can click here.