Psychological Science: Stairs Awarded $440K NIH Grant to Study Developmental Effects and Abuse Potential of Delta-8-THC and CBD
Dustin Stairs, PhD, professor of psychological science, was awarded $440,924 NIH grant to study the developmental effects of environmental enrichment on the abuse potential of delta-8-THC and CBD.
Understanding individual differences in vulnerability to drug abuse is an important component to developing better prevention and treatment strategies. To that end, Dr. Stairs and his undergraduate research laboratory within the Department of Psychological Science will work in collaboration with Dr. Charles Bockman in the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience on a three-year, NIH grant-funded research project entitled The Developmental Effects of Environmental Enrichment on the Minor Cannabinoid Drug Reward and Cannabinoid Receptor Levels.
The $440,924 grant is funded by both the National Institute on Drugs of Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).
The team will investigate different groups of rats which are either “addiction prone” or “protected against addiction” to determine the differences between the rats’ sensitivity to the rewarding effects of vaporized delta-8-THC, a popular new cannabis product being sold and used by adolescents.
The overall goals of the grant are threefold:
Determine whether the environmental enrichment model the rats are exposed to over the course of their development which induces some rats to be “addiction prone” and others to be “protected against addiction” affects the abuse potential of the drugs delta-8-THC, CBD, and combinations of these drugs.
See whether any induced protective effects against drug abuse potential change overtime, increasing or decreasing the longer the rats are maintained in their environments.
Determine whether environmental enrichment during the development of the rats alters their expression of the primary cannabinoid receptor in areas of the brain involved in the abuse liability of cannabinoids. The specific receptor of interest in this grant is the CNS endocannabinoid CB1 receptor.