Synaptic plasticity involves cannabinoid receptor and nAChRs.
and an aside about actin, glyphosate and CoV topics.
Synaptic plasticity in the last post made me immediately suspect that endocannabinoids would be involved with nAChRs then, as cannabinoids also are significant players in the synaptic connections between nerves. They help with learning and memory, but also with forgetting the old (possibly traumatic) memory. Having a genetic or other cause of low endocannabinoids is linked to PTSD and with phantom limb pain or other sensations. Body memory needs cannabinoids to help forget also. See this post: Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency, (CED), and phospholipids. (Substack)
Cannabinoid receptors tend to help with reuptake of neurotransmitters, to help end a message from continually sending/buzzing/endlessly. Trauma can be hard to let go of if the brain is low on cannabinoids and can’t shut down the repetitive nerve pathways.
Synaptic plasticity is referring to the changeable, flexible nature of nerve memory - or the inflexible pattern of a habit. “The horse knows the way home” is an old saying about patterns of behavior that become so engrained that the conscious mind might be able to take a little daydream break while you are driving home from work. And then suddenly you are home and realize you hadn’t been paying total attention to the road. Count your blessings or luck, your inner horse, your habitual memory, took you home safely and nothing bad seems to have happened, even if you don’t really remember the ride home.
How this information might translate into improved quality of life.
Random trivia, I give my mom with Alzheimer's pomegranate juice and CBD drops and both help. I can tell when I run out of either one. The CBD drops help with sound sensitivity - an overactive startled response to loud and sudden noises is reduced. The pomegranate helps with the histamine anxiety.
When her health and pain level worsened in late winter this year, I added THC drops and that helped with anxiety even more. The CBD drops seem to help with the overactive startle reflex more than THC alone. Now she gets CBD & THC & pomegranate twice a day usually. They all help calm mast cells and improve an anxious histamine excess mood. *We are in a legal state.
The other day, looking out at early morning 🌄 sun, she said, blowing my mind, “That is the direction the dawn arrives from”. When I lifted my jaw off the floor I just said, “Yes mom, that is the direction dawn arrives from.” When in histamine excess, she is extremely fearful of bright light and doesn’t like it to touch anything in a room - possibly relating it to flames and a fire hazard.
She has not been speaking well enough to understand more often now. But that comment was more lucid than she has been a few years as well as not being scared. The bad histamine excess causes her to have a hyperfocus on fear and paranoia as she was a trauma survivor too.
Interactions between the Nicotinic and Endocannabinoid Receptors at the Plasma Membrane. Graphical Abstract, (Vallés, Barrantes, 2022)
*The point in sharing these graphics and link is that more info is available if interested, full text. Otherwise - the brief point is simply that our cholinergic and cannabinoid systems are very closely linked in relation to learning and memory formation or with forgetting - which means our ability to relearn new things about an old topic.
If the horse knows the way to its old home, then will it always turn up in the wrong place after having been moved away? Or can the horse learn where new home is located and forget the previous patterned behavior that had led straight to the old stall and food.
Random aside - “Actin mesh” - Our support proteins are very important for helping stabilize cell or extracellular fluid and proteins and help direct things to where they best fit together. Glyphosate can interfere with the ‘hook’ like end on microtubule proteins and then they won’t be able to connect other proteins the way they should be able to. For more on microtubules, health, and CoV - see “C) Microtubule dysfunction, depolymerization - glyphosate? Ca) Spike Protein seems to disrupt microtubules in the extracellular fluid, by depolymerization possibly,” Cb) and Cc) glyphosate & CoV within this long post: Spike protein risks & aids - summary page, June 28, 2021, (Substack). *Content warning, I included a section on sexual health and CoV - some can increase immune function, instead of leading to Monkey Pox which involves friction and overuse injury in addition to some inflammatory condition - radiation, sunburn, or maybe an underlying infection - but sunburn alone can turn into ‘pox’. My ‘pox’ series is in my Substack archives.
“Microtubules are involved in mechanical support, cytoplasmic organization, and several cellular processes by interacting with diverse microtubule-associated proteins such as plus-end tracking proteins, motor proteins, and tubulin-folding cofactors. A number of the cytoskeleton-associated proteins (CAPs) contain the CAP-glycine-rich (CAP-Gly) domain, which is evolutionarily conserved and generally considered to bind to α-tubulin to regulate the function of microtubules.” (Wang, et al., 2018)
Figure 1. (Vallés, Barrantes, 2022)
“Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the biosynthetic pathway followed by ECs N-acylethanolamine (AN) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) by NAPE-PLD and DAG lipase, respectively. Both AN and 2-AG bind to presynaptic CB1Rs expressed on GABAergic, glutamatergic and cholinergic terminals, precluding neurotransmitter release. Induction of DOPA secretion by primary inhibition of GABA release is involved in the reward pathway in the brain.
[*GABA is a calming neurotransmitter, dopamine stimulating.]
Abbreviations: PLD, N-acyl phosphatidylethanolamine phospholipase D; DAG, diacylglycerol; NAT, N-acyltransferase; PE, Phosphatidylethanolamine; nAChRs, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors; CB1R, cannabinoid type 1 receptor; AMPA, amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoazolepropionate receptor; GABA, γ-aminobutyric acid; GABAR, GABA receptor; NMDAR, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor; DOPA, dopamine; DOPAR, DOPA receptor; VTA, ventral tegmental area; NAc, nucleus accumbens.” (Vallés, Barrantes, 2022)
Disclaimer: This information is being shared for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.
Reference List
(Vallés, Barrantes, 2022) Vallés AS, Barrantes FJ. Interactions between the Nicotinic and Endocannabinoid Receptors at the Plasma Membrane. Membranes. 2022; 12(8):812. https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes12080812 https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0375/12/8/812
(Wang, et al., 2018) Wang LL, Lee KT, Jung KW, Lee DG, Bahn YS. The novel microtubule-associated CAP-glycine protein Cgp1 governs growth, differentiation, and virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans. Virulence. 2018 Jan 1;9(1):566-584. doi: 10.1080/21505594.2017.1423189. PMID: 29338542; PMCID: PMC5955475. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5955475/
Wish I had known about the pomegranate & CBD drops when I was taking care of my mother, who had severe dementia. Thanks for the info! Very interesting.
Thank you for all your wise and experiential remedies and anecdotes.
Enlightening.