Stephanie McGrath, PhD
Associate Professor, Neurology, Colorado State University

The World Health Organization predicts that Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other dementias will be the second leading cause of death in the United States within the next decade. Unfortunately, multimodal treatment efforts, with drugs, vaccines, and stem cell therapies, have yet to be successful. Neurodegenerative disorders are associated with the accumulation and aggregation of misfolded disease-specific proteins in the brain followed by the irreversible loss of neurons. Canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CCD) is a well-recognized neurodegenerative disease in older dogs and serves as an ideal naturally occurring surrogate for AD in humans. To date, there are no broadly effective treatment options for dogs or humans suffering from cognitive decline, partially due to the inferior animal models used in past research. Pathophysiologic changes associated with AD include increased amyloid- (A) deposition leading to senile plaques, increased tau hyperphosphorylation leading to neurofibrillary tangles, and significant neuroinflammation and oxidative stress leading to neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. Promising data have revealed that cannabidiol (CBD) and trazodone may have beneficial effects on various phases of the neurodegenerative process, which, given alone or in combination, could provide an effective preventive and therapeutic option in dogs, acting as a translational model for use in humans. We aim to enroll thirty client-owned dogs with naturally occurring cognitive dysfunction in a blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, with the objective of evaluating the effect and tolerability of CBD with and without trazodone on disease progression. The results of this in vivo study will set the foundation for human clinical trials.