The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded nearly $2 million for two new research projects examining whether marijuana and cannabinoids may reduce inflammation and related health problems in people living with HIV.
Both grants were issued through the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), began this month and are scheduled to continue through June 2031.
The larger award, totaling $1,233,586 for its first year, went to the University of California, San Diego for a project titled “Epigenetics of the neuroimmune axis in HIV and cannabis use.”
Researchers will examine how THC and cannabidiol (CBD) affect immune cells in the brain and blood of people with and without HIV, including whether cannabinoids produce epigenetic and transcriptional changes that reduce inflammation and help preserve blood-brain barrier integrity.
The project is led by Ronald Ellis and Michael Corley.
According to the grant abstract, previous NIDA-funded research found marijuana use among people with virally suppressed HIV was associated with lower inflammatory markers in cerebrospinal fluid and blood, reduced blood-brain barrier permeability and lower levels of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1.
Researchers also report preliminary findings showing marijuana users had substantially lower expression of certain interferon-stimulated genes involved in chronic neuroinflammation.
The second new grant provides $723,353 to Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans for research examining whether marijuana’s anti-inflammatory effects could mitigate premature aging associated with HIV.
Researchers say preliminary analysis of autopsy tissue found that HIV tissue reservoirs were significantly reduced among people with a history of marijuana use and were associated with lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines.
The team also found that people with HIV who used marijuana showed biological aging of brain neurons similar to HIV-negative individuals of comparable ages, leading researchers to investigate whether marijuana use may slow HIV-associated premature aging.
The project will examine brain tissue across different age groups, determine whether marijuana use is associated with reduced epigenetic age acceleration and investigate the neuroimmune mechanisms connecting HIV, inflammation and cannabinoids.
The two new grants total $1,956,939 in first-year NIH funding.
The findings cited in both grants are preliminary and largely observational, meaning they do not establish that marijuana causes the reported benefits. The newly funded research is intended in part to determine the biological mechanisms that could explain the associations.
