The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7344 p415
9 April 2005

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Place for cannabinoid compounds in cardiovascular disease

Drugs that affect cannabinoid receptors might have a place in the management of cardiovascular disease, results from two recent studies reveal.

In the first, a phase III clinical trial involving 1,507 patients, researchers demonstrated that improvements in cardiovascular risk factors achieved with the selective CB1 inhibitor rimonabant (20mg daily) were maintained in the second year of treatment.

Compared with placebo, rimonabant led to greater reductions in waist circumference (5.7cm vs 1.8cm, P<0.001) and to improved weight loss (22.0 per cent of patients lost more than 10 per cent of their initial body weight compared with 6.3 per cent of patients given placebo, P<0.001). Metabolic parameters, such as high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, were also improved. The two-year data were presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology held in Orlando, Florida, last month.

The second study, conducted in laboratory mice, suggests that a component of cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is able to halt atherosclerotic disease progression. European researchers administered oral THC to mice with established atherosclerosis. The doses (about 1mg/kg daily) were lower than the level required to activate the CB1 receptor, say the researchers, but were able to prevent the accumulation of immune cells in blood vessels by binding to CB2 receptors. “Our results suggest that cannabinoid derivatives with activity at the CB2 receptor may be valuable clinical targets for treating atherosclerosis,” the researchers conclude (Nature 2005;434:782).