Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

The objective of this study is to uncover the role of the endocannabinoid system, its interaction with the serotonergic/dopaminergic and neuro-immune systems in neural inflammation, neural development, and schizophrenia-related cognitive and social impairments. Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorders with multiple symptom presentations that typically emerge in late adolescence and early adulthood. Schizophrenia remains incurable, and an alternative approach to treatment is the development of drug interventions that could prevent the conversion of early prodromal symptoms to schizophrenia in clinically-at-risk individuals. Of recent interest for neuropsychiatric therapeutics is cannabis' non-intoxicating component, cannabidiol (CBD). CBD acts on CB1/CB2, likely to mediate its ant-inflammatory effects, but also modulates the serotonin system as agonist on serotonin-1A receptors, which are implicated in cognitive-emotional behavior, and in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) methyl ester (HU-580), a more stable derivative of the precursor of CBD, has been reported to be more potent for its serotonergic effects, and therefore a promising alternative for therapeutic development. By uncovering the role of the endocannabinoid system and the effects of cannabis in neural inflammation and serotonergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission resulting from prenatal viral infection, we will be able to determine new avenues of developing preventive treatments for schizophrenia when a cure remains elusive. This has clinical implications not only for schizophrenia but also for neuropsychiatric conditions that may arise from abnormal immune activation, including those that could be related to covid-19