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202520232019

Research Hints at the Potential of Pain Relief with CBD

Friday, November 7, 2025

Reaching for CBD-infused lotion or oil may seem like a low-risk way to find pain relief, but little is actually known about the impact that CBD has on the nervous system.

Over the past decade, the use of cannabis products for pain management has increased, in part because in 2018 Congress signed a law removing hemp from the federal Controlled Substances Act, thereby legalizing hemp-derived CBD. Today, it is most commonly found in oil form, as well as in lotions and cosmetics, and it is widely understood that CBD does not cause a ‘high’. However, what CBD does in the human body and brain is not well understood. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration has only approved CBD as an adjunctive treatment for certain forms of epilepsy, and it is not recommended for use during pregnancy.

“We need to understand more about this compound, what mechanisms it interacts with in the brain, its impact on the body, and whether it is a potentially safer solution for treating the chronic pain epidemic,” said Kuan Hong Wang, PhD, professor of Neuroscience and member of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester, whose lab in collaboration with researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, recently discovered that in mice, they could effectively deliver CBD to the brain for neuropathic pain relief with no adverse side effects. This research was published today in the journal Cell Chemical Biology.

Sex and Age Shape Progression of Batten Disease, Brainwave Study Finds

Thursday, November 6, 2025

Batten disease is a rare inherited condition that affects brain development and function. CLN3 disease is the most common type of this disease. The symptoms are life changing. They usually begin between the ages of four and seven. Children will experience vision loss, problems with cognition, movement, seizures, and difficulties with speech. The symptoms make it a difficult disease to study, and how the disease progresses in males versus females is not well understood; however, it is common for female patients with CLN3 to experience a later onset of symptoms compared to males and have a more rapid disease progression.

Researchers from the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester have found that male and female brains show different responses as the disease progresses and have found a model of the disease that could transform future treatments, as explained in a paper published today in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

“Because vision and cognition decline early, it is hard for scientists to track how the disease progresses and develop reliable treatments using standard tests,” said Yanya Ding, PhD, an alumna of the Neuroscience Graduate program in the Wang Lab and first author of the study. “Being able to successfully track brain functions in mice gives us a model that could transform how we study possible treatments and therapeutics for this devastating disease.”

Using a non-invasive measure of brain electrical activity known as electroencephalography or EEG, and an audio test, researchers were able to detect how the brain responds to sound pattern changes in male and female mouse models of CLN3. They surprisingly discovered that male mice showed early auditory problems that improved with age, while female mice had persistent difficulties, evidence that both age and sex play important roles in the progression of Batten disease.

Previous research led by the co-senior author of this study, John Foxe, PhD, principal investigator of the Fredrick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Lab at the University of Rochester, identified the easy-to-measure brain process or biomarker in human CLN3 patients that was used in this mouse study.

“These findings highlight the importance of tracking brain function over time and support the use of this EEG-based method as a valuable tool for monitoring disease progression and testing new treatments,” said Kuan Hong Wang, PhD, professor of Neuroscience and co-senior author of the new study. “By showing how Batten disease progresses differently in males and females, this research could help guide more personalized therapies and improve the timing of interventions for better outcomes.”

Brain’s Immune Cells Key to Wiring the Adolescent Brain

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Making a smoothie, going for an evening walk, or having empathy for a loved one are all examples of executive functions that are controlled by the brain’s frontal cortex. This area of the brain goes through profound change throughout adolescence, and it is during this time that abnormalities in maturing circuits can set the stage for neurodevelopmental disorders, such as schizophrenia and ADHD. Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester have discovered that microglia, the brain’s immune cells, play a key role in how the brain adapts to the changes in this area during adolescence, which may transform how neurodevelopmental disorders are treated during this window and, possibly, into adulthood.

“A better understanding of the ways we can drive changes in these circuits offers new targets for disease treatment,” said Rianne Stowell, PhD, research assistant professor of Neuroscience at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and first author of the study out today in Nature Communications. “This area is also susceptible to change, both good and bad, during adolescence. Previous work in our lab has found that both direct activation of frontal dopamine circuits and rewarding behavior drive plasticity of dopaminergic connections to the frontal cortex during adolescence, but not adulthood.”