Dexanabinol is the Company's first neuroprotective agent. Dexanabinol does not bind to either of the known cannabinoid receptors. Its pharmacological activity is related to its ability to inhibit NMDA receptors and to block COX-2, cytokines and chemokine activation thereby acting as an anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective agent. Dexanabinol completed a Phase IIa clinical trial as an agent to prevent cognitive impairment following cardiac surgery. The potential of dexanabinol to treat other neuroinflammatory indications is under investigation.
::Cognitive Impairment Following Cardiac Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) ::
Dexanabinol was tested in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase IIa trial. The trial enrolled 202 patients undergoing elective CABG surgery at six medical centers in Israel. The primary efficacy analysis included the Stroop Color Word (Stroop) test that measures executive function and a battery of other neuropsychological tests that measure attention and memory. The Stroop test indicated that the dexanabinol-treated patients had a clinically and statistically significant (p=0.01) improvement over placebo at three months post-surgery, however the attention and memory tests did not show a significant difference between the drug-treated and placebo-treated groups. The data showed dexanabinol was safe and well tolerated in this study, with no serious adverse events attributable to the drug.
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