Cannabis-derived oils are used in clinics as alternative treatment for anxiety, depression, and stress, reporting significant improvements in the quality of life. Similarly, in murine models, chronic administration of pure cannabidiol (CBD) has shown marked improvements in anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors, effects partly attributed to a proneurogenic action in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus.
As cannabis oils are complex mixtures of cannabinoids and terpenes, and can yield an “entourage effect”, we aim to evaluate the impact of chronic administration of cannabis oils with different compositions on several behaviors, as well as the relevance of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in these phenomena. To this end, 4 different groups of 8–9-week-old, C57BL/6 mice, will receive a daily oral administration of CBD-, CBDA-, CBDV- enriched oils or vehicle for 6 weeks. Potential anxiolytic effects will be studied by means of the Elevated Plus Maze and the Novelty-Suppressed Feeding test. Anhedonic behaviors will be analyzed by the Splash test, and memory abilities will be evaluated by the Novel Object Recognition test. In addition, neuronal proliferation as well as survival of 3-week-old neurons in the DG will be quantified at the end of the 6 week-protocol. Based on the obtained results, we plan to use Nestin-Cre transgenic mice to ablate neural precursors and determine the relevance of this cell population on the observed behaviors.