Find Promising Preliminary Research for

CBD as a Therapeutic For Elite Athletes

LSU Health Shreveport in collaboration with Tiger Research Group (TRG) shared promising new research published in the Journal of Cannabis Research. The research focuses on the use of topical cannabidiol (CBD) and individuals with a history of elite physical performance and chronic lower extremity pain.

Lead authors of the research include Bradie James, former professional athlete and Founder/President of Tiger Research Group whose mission is to change the stigma of cannabis through education and research, and Kevin Murnane, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Toxicology, & Neuroscience and Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine, and Director of Basic Science Research for the Louisiana Addiction Research Center at LSU Health Shreveport. Students that worked on this project included PhD student Nicole Hall and medical students Erin Crane and Carlie Falgout. Dr. Mohammad Alfrad Nobel Bhuiyan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, analyzed the data. Tiger Research Group’s collaborative research includes studying Cannabinoids and formulations in cellular models for addiction, inflammation, pain, and other endpoints. Data gathered including experiments are being analyzed by LSU Health Shreveport for safety and efficacy.

There are limited studies on CBD and its ability to be a therapeutic for pain management. Dr. Murnane and fellow researchers began to study how the special population of former elite athletes tolerated topical CBD. Given that former athletes are susceptible to chronic pain and trained to assess medication tolerability concerns, the population was idyllic to answer the question of “Is CBD a potential therapeutic for pain management due to being effective and tolerable?” To the research team’s knowledge, this is the first study to assess the CBD treatment in elite athletes.

“Achieving All Conference, All American, Young Alumnus of the Year, and being inducted in the Sports Hall of Fame has been special; however, working with LSU Health Shreveport to become an investigator/researcher is one of my proudest accomplishments at LSU,” stated Bradie James.

Their publication, titled “Topical Cannabidiol is Well Tolerated in Individuals with a History of Elite Physical Performance and Chronic Lower Extremity Pain,” found that topical CBD was tolerated with little adverse side effects by the study’s population. The six-week study was conducted with participating former professional athletes, all of whom had careers ranging from 4-10 years. The study found that 50 percent of participants experienced minor adverse effects such as dry skin, and 50 percent of participants experienced no side effects. Individuals reported a significant improvement in pain levels along with the enhanced ability to pursue home responsibilities and social, occupational, and recreational activities.

Murnane and James are hopeful that the positive pilot findings of this initial smaller study will warrant further study of a topical CBD study of elite athletes.

“It is estimated that more than 100,000 Americans will lose their lives to opioid addiction in 2023. Their loss will be felt in their families and our communities and throughout our society. It is critically important that we study options such as CBD to control pain in order to end the scourge of the opioid crisis,” stated Dr. Kevin Murnane, Principal Investigator (PI) for the study.

CEVT Continues To Expand Viral Sequencing Efforts

The Center of Excellence for Emerging Viral Threats at LSU Health Shreveport recently sequenced the first instance in Louisiana of the XBB.1.16 variant, assigned the common name “Arcturus”, from a COVID-19 test sample from Willis-Knighton. CEVT Viral Genomics and Surveillance Lab team also sequenced the second instance in the state of the XBB.1.9.1 variant, assigned the common name “Hyperion”, from a school testing sample.

“These sequences were generated through our genomic surveillance program, which was designed to detect viruses circulating in our community. Detecting these very recently emerging variants demonstrates the robustness of our efforts,” said Krista Queen, PhD, Director of Viral Genomics and Surveillance for the Center for Emerging Viral Threats at LSU Health Shreveport.

XBB.1.5, a subvariant of the Omicron variant, remains the dominant strain in the U.S. The Arcturus and Hyperion subvariants, also both descendants of the Omicron variant, are becoming more prevalent in the United States. Both subvariants are closely monitored because they are quickly increasing in proportion to other SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating, but there is no indication currently that they are more likely to cause severe disease. The Arcturus variant has two distinct symptoms of producing more fever and more cases of conjunctivitis, or pink eye, compared with other strains of the virus.

Adding to the expertise and capabilities of the CEVT’s Viral Genomics and Surveillance Lab, the lab has also begun sequencing Flu and RSV strains circulating in the Shreveport-Bossier community. These data are shared with researchers across the world and help make up the large dataset used to decide the latest vaccine composition and design.

As of June 1, 2023, the Viral Genomics and Surveillance Lab has sequenced 18,898 SARS-CoV-2 genomes.

Dr. Lynn Harrison on Detail as NASA Space Biology Scientist

Lynn Harrison, PhD, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, has been selected as the Deputy Program Scientist on Detail for NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division of the Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Space Biology program identifies and develops concepts for transformative research relating to the changes experienced by living organisms in the unique environment of space. As the Deputy Program Scientist, Dr. Harrison will serve a two-year term in this role and will provide expert scientific leadership for the formulation and execution of the program, particularly in the area of rodent biology.

Dr. Harrison has worked with NASA in various capacities throughout her career. In 2011 she participated as a panel expert for Oxidative Damage at a NASA programmatic meeting. Dr. Harrison served as the Chair of the BLISS (Space Biology Beyond LEO Instrumentation and & Science Series) Scientist Working Group for Space Biology for two years. Over the past ten years, Dr. Harrison has received more than $1.4 million in grant funding as principal investigator or co-investigator from NASA and the Louisiana Space Grant Consortium (LaSPACE). Her most recent grant award from NASA’s Space Biology Program was titled “Investigating Lunar Stress and Parkinson’s Disease Using an Alpha Synuclein Yeast Model.” Dr. Harrison is also one of the founders and organizers of the Space Biology Interest Group (SBIG) at LSU Health Shreveport, which was established in March 2022.

LSU Health Shreveport Named New Site for Nationwide Study on Parkinson’s Disease in Black and African American Individuals

LSU Health Shreveport has partnered with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to become one of five sites participating in the Black and African American Connections to Parkinson’s Disease (BLAAC-PD) study, a project of the Global Parkinson’s Genetics Program (GP2) and the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) initiative. MJFF serves as the implementation partner for GP2 and works with the ASAP initiative to coordinate a global program to conduct scientific research and analysis to identify genetic links to Parkinson’s disease.

It is estimated that nearly one million people in the United States are affected by Parkinson’s disease (PD), an age-related degenerative brain condition that impacts motor and cognitive function. It is the most common movement-related brain disease and the second-most common neurodegenerative disease.

The Black and African American Connections to Parkinson’s Disease (BLAAC-PD) research study seeks to learn more about gene changes that may cause Parkinson’s in Black and African American people. To date, 90% of genetics studies performed relating to Parkinson’s disease have involved populations of European ancestry, meaning that Black and African American individuals are underrepresented in current research data and the genetic impact on PD susceptibility in these populations is largely unknown.

“While great strides have been made in Parkinson’s disease research, there is still more to learn, especially regarding the genetic impact on disease development. Information gathered through studies like BLACC PD could lead to major breakthroughs in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Our team at LSU Health Shreveport is excited to be working with GP2 and the Michael J. Fox Foundation to better understand PD and develop new therapies for all groups of people who are affected by this disease,” said Elizabeth Disbrow, PhD, Director of the Center for Brain Health and Professor of Neurology, who will lead the study at LSU Health Shreveport.

LSU Health Shreveport joins Rush University, University of Chicago, Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States and University of Alabama at Birmingham as participating U.S. BLAAC-PD study sites. Since being activated as a site for this study in February, LSU Health Shreveport has been the leader in number of participants enrolled each month.

Lin, Zhang Awarded R01 Grant to Study Potential Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease

Kevin Lin, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Assistant Director of the Center of Brain Health, and Quanguang Zhang, PhD, Professor of Neurology, have been awarded a 5-year, $3.5M R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging for their project, “Using Photobiomodulation to Alleviate Brain Hypoperfusion in Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most common and progressive genetic neurodegenerative disorders in the United States with more than 5 million people currently living with Alzheimer’s. A critical gap in knowledge is how vascular brain perfusion dynamics are involved in vascular dementia, which is a decline in thinking and problem-solving skills and the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. This emerging and difficult area of inquiry has limited investigations into the neurovascular system, brain emergent networks, with only indirect applications related to neurological diseases, where the functional role of protein arginine methyltransferases as they relate to brain metabolism, circulation, functional learning and memory are understudied. Dr. Lin and Dr. Zhang seek to investigate protein arginine methyltransferase 4 (PRMT4) as an important age and sex-related brain regulatory element to delay vascular cognitive impairment disorders. They recently discovered protein arginine methyltransferase 4 was enhanced in the AD brain in mice and humans. Their central hypothesis is the inhibition of protein arginine methyltransferase 4 via photobiomodulation — non-invasive laser treatment — can enhance neurovascular coupling, maintain blood-brain-barrier integrity, and reduce the effects learning/memory deficits in aged 3xTg-AD mice. Therefore, inhibition of PRMT4 in the AD brain can revive microvessel perfusion and hypoperfusion-mediated Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Lin and Dr. Zhang are Co-Principal Investigators on this grant, allowing them to combine their respective areas of expertise. Dr. Lin is a protein arginine methyltransferase expert in cerebral vascular brain perfusion via two-photon laser scanning microscopy in various disease states such as Alzheimer’s disease and stroke/ ischemia. Dr. Zhang is an expert in functional behavior outcomes related to Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease related dementias (AD/ADRD) with strengths in photobiomodulation as a clinically relevant therapy.