Lexaria Bioscience Turns Focus to Dementia and Diabetes with New Studies

Lexaria recently demonstrated DehydraTECH-CBD exceptional safety and tolerability in a human hypertension study, along with statistically significant lowering of blood pressure over multiple weeks; something that previous studies by others have failed to evidence. Strong connections have been established between hypertension and dementia and diabetes.

The company’s patented drug delivery technology, DehydraTECH, improves the way active pharmaceutical ingredients enter the bloodstream and has demonstrated the ability to increase bio-absorption with cannabinoids, antiviral drugs and PDE5 inhibitors. DehydraTECH has also evidenced an ability to deliver some drugs more effectively across the blood brain barrier, an important factor in treating dementia.

We spoke to John Docherty, Lexaria’s President and Head of Research, to find out more.

Q: Lexaria recently announced it would evaluate DehydraTECH-CBD as a potential therapeutic for dementia and diabetes. Is there a link between these indications and CBD? Tell us about Lexaria’s R&D strategy.

A: CBD has shown promise as a treatment for a number of conditions and has revolutionized the treatment of seizures in two rare, severe forms of epilepsy. Anecdotally, CBD is also believed to alleviate symptoms of anxiety, chronic pain and insomnia. We believe that more high-quality human studies are needed to establish safety and efficacy of CBD in different patient populations and to determine effective therapeutic dosing. Our R&D strategy involves evaluating DehydraTECH-CBD’s potential therapeutic utility in a number of indications.

Hypertension and dementia are linked. Clinical studies have shown that individuals who have high blood pressure are more likely to develop vascular dementia. Similarly, there are strong connections between heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. Hypertension is twice as frequent in diabetics and hypertensive patients are at greater risk of developing diabetes.

We are excited to investigate whether DehydraTECH-CBD has a potential application in the treatment of dementia and diabetes based on its propensity to cross the blood-brain barrier, the fact that DehydraTECH-CBD lowers human blood pressure and the fact that CBD is known to have vasodilatory, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.

Q: You recently announced positive results from your human hypertension study. What did the study show?

A: The results of Lexaria’s human hypertension were truly exceptional. We were able to demonstrate statistically significant lowering of blood pressure in our patient population over multiple weeks using DehydraTECH-CBD. This is something that previous studies by others using other oral CBD formulations have failed to evidence. 

The study demonstrated excellent safety and tolerability of DehydraTECH-CBD and no adverse changes in liver enzymes throughout the study, a common concern in CBD dosing. We were also able to show that decreases in blood pressure were similar in participants currently taking standard of care hypertension medications to those not undergoing any concurrent blood pressure treatment. We believe that DehydraTECH-CBD has the potential to offer additive blood pressure reduction benefits on top of standard of care medications.

Q: How could CBD potentially help treat a disease such as dementia?

A: Dementia is currently the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases, affecting approximately seven million Americans today. 

In light of the established link between hypertension and vascular dementia, the positive outcomes of our human hypertension study and previous research evidencing the therapeutic potential of CBD in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, we are looking forward to investigating DehydraTECH-CBD’s potential therapeutic utility against dementia.

Q: Tell us more about why Lexaria believes DehydraTECH-CBD has potential applications as a treatment for diabetes.

A: There is an established link between diabetes and hypertension, and although investigation of CBD related to diabetes is in its early stages, we believe that Lexaria can contribute to the conversation. CBD has shown some ability to reduce the incidence of diabetes in mice due to its powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and we look forward to understanding more about DehydraTECH-CBD’s potential therapeutic utility against diabetes through our study.

Q: Can you provide more detail about the two studies? 

A: Lexaria’s dementia study, DEM-A22-1, is a dose-ranging, two-month program in 32 Long Evans rats to investigate whether CBD enables cognitive performance enhancements and could potentially be of utility in dementia treatment. The study is a novel object recognition test which will be used to assess memory and investigate whether CBD enables cognitive performance enhancements. We expect the laboratory work to be complete in January 2023 with data analysis and reporting to follow thereafter.

Our diabetes study, DIAB-A22-1, is a dose-ranging, 56-day program in 32 Zucker rats that will compare weight gain, blood glucose, cholesterol and trigyceride levels in animals that receive DehydraTECH-CBD to those that do not. Like our dementia study, this study will be undertaken by a leading, third-party testing laboratory in Canada and the laboratory work is also expected to complete in January 2023, followed by analysis and reporting. We look forward to updating the market with any material findings as they become available.

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