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A very exciting petri dish result! If this actually works in an animal model, it could be a true breakthrough. I am wondering if THC in vivo might undergo some kind of subtle metabolism after being ingested or smoked so that it still binds to cannaboid receptors, but doesn't affect beta amyloid.

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If I recall correctly (from a radiolab interview w/ Dr.Tsai [0]), something like 99% of animal model successes don't transfer to humans.

[0] http://www.radiolab.org/story/bringing-gamma-back/

Be that as it may (and, yes, if mice had access to all human medical knowledge, no mouse would probably ever die of cancer), I'd still be more hopeful about an animal study than one done on a cell culture. In fact, given the relative safety of marijuana and THC, and the severity of the disease, I could even see going straight to humans to see if it can abate symptoms in actual Alzheimer's patients.

I skimmed the article. I'm way out of my comfort zone here, but I think they covered that. I think they said cannabinoids are converted to something lose that stops the progression to cell death.

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