Abstract
Purpose :
The breakdown of the blood brain barrier and the blood retinal barrier in Diabetes is the cause for many later life complications such as the cognitive decline and diabetic retinopathy. These complications are associated with inflammation and oxidative stress in both brain and retina. Current research suggests that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive derivative of Cannabis sativa with potential medicinal effects, is both anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Therefore, we performed a series of experiments to determine the potential of CBD as a possible treatment for the complications associated with Diabetes in the zebrafish model.
Methods :
To conduct our study, we maintained 5 groups of fish (roughly 5 per group); hyperglycemic fish treated with water (Glucose/Water), hyperglycemic fish treated with CBD (Glucose/CBD), non-hyperglycemic treated with water (Water/Water), non-hyperglycemic treated with CBD (Water/CBD), and non-hyperglycemic treated with methanol (Water/Methanol). Every other day fish were treated with their respective drug (CBD (5mg/L), methanol (5mg/L), or water) for 20 mins, followed by the Novel Tank test. On the last day of testing, the visually guided optomotor response (OMR) assay was preformed, followed immediately by tissue sample collection to determine changes in brain and retinal tissue.
Results :
OMR results show no significant differences overall between any of the five groups. However, the trends we observed showed that Glucose/Water fish had the lowest OMR scores (M = 0.45, SD = 0.32). Water/CBD fish had the highest OMR scores (M = 1.7, SD = 2.1), and Water/Water fish had similar OMR scores compared to Glucose/CBD fish (M = 0.95, SD = 0.69 and M = 0.875, SD = 0.34 respectively). We expect analysis of collected brain and retinal tissue to corroborate these findings showing increased inflammation in the brain and retinas of hyperglycemic fish, and control-like levels in Glucose/CBD fish.
Conclusions :
This preliminary study shows the validity of the use of 5mg/L of CBD in zebrafish, with no deaths in our adult zebrafish cohort during the duration of our study. Preliminary results suggest a therapeutic effect of CBD against hyperglycemia, specifically, against diabetes induced visual deficits.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.