Prenatal cannabis exposure affects human fetal neurodevelopment: an integrated multi-omics study

作者：Guenther Kahlert, X H Chen, Theo K. Bammler, James W. MacDonald, Lyndsey S. Benson, I Glass, Jennifer C. Dempsey, Dilip Kumar Singh, Bhagwat Prasad, Jashvant D. Unadkat · 发表于：bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.64898/2026.07.15.738779 · 研究领域：Prenatal Substance Exposure Effects、Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research、Folate and B Vitamins Research

Prenatal cannabis use is on the rise, and observational studies suggest that such use results in neurodevelopmental deficits in the offspring. Because observational studies can be confounded by unaccounted factors, we studied the neurodevelopmental consequences, at the molecular level, of prenatal cannabis use. We applied an integrated multi-omics approach, combining transcriptomics and global proteomics, to first trimester (T1) and second trimester (T2) human fetal brains from pregnancies with and without documented maternal cannabis exposure and no use of drugs of abuse. Prenatal cannabis exposure produced minimal molecular effects in female T1 fetal brains but induced pronounced system-level disruption in male T2 fetal brains. These disrupted pathways have molecular signatures linked to neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia-related pathology, and disorders of cortical connectivity, raising significant concerns of prenatal cannabis use.