Mild cogni­tive impair­ment (“MCI”) is an inter­me­diate stage between the expected cogni­tive decline of normal aging and the more-serious decline of dementia. It can involve problems with memory, language, thinking and judgment that are greater than normal age-related changes. MCI causes cogni­tive changes that are serious enough to be noticed by the individ­uals experi­encing them, or to other people, but the changes are not severe enough to inter­fere with daily life or indepen­dent function. People with MCI, especially those involving memory problems, are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or other demen­tias than people without MCI. There is currently no FDA approved treat­ment for MCI.

A pre-clinical study was designed and conducted by Professor Yosef Sarne of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. In the study, mice were injected with an ultra low dose of THC. These mice performed signif­i­cantly better than vehicle-treated old mice, and performed similarly to naive young mice aged two months, in different assays assessing various aspects of memory and learning. The model demon­strated a relatively long-lasting increase in neuro­pro­tec­tion and neuro­plas­ticity, as well as a larger volume and higher tissue density in various regions of the brain of THC-treated old mice as measured by MRI. The data from this study suggest that ultra low doses of THC could poten­tially provide a safe and effec­tive treat­ment for cogni­tive decline in aging humans.

Cognitive impair­ments due to traumatic brain injury (TBI) are substan­tial sources of morbidity and mortality. Disturbances of atten­tion, memory, and execu­tive functioning are the most common neurocog­ni­tive conse­quences of TBI at all levels of severity. There is no pharma­co­log­ical treat­ment for cogni­tive impair­ments due to TBI.

Therapix is currently running an animal study in the model of cogni­tive impair­ments due to repeated TBI in collab­o­ra­tion with Professor Alon Friedman from Dalhousie University, Halifax Canada.