Novel CBD Cream Reduced UVA Effects on Skin in Pilot Study

Application of an investigative topical cannabidiol (CBD) cream to buttock skin demonstrated protective properties against ultraviolet A (UVA) radiation-induced DNA and mitochondrial DNA damage, results from a small prospective pilot study showed.

“This study hopefully reinvigorates interest in the utilization of whether it be plant-based, human-derived, or synthetic cannabinoids in the management of dermatologic disease,” one of the study investigators, Adam Friedman, MD, professor and chair of dermatology at George Washington University, Washington, DC, told this news organization. The study was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

For the prospective, single-center, pilot trial, which is believed to be the first of its kind, 19 volunteers aged 22- 65 with Fitzpatrick skin types I-III applied either a nano-encapsulated CBD cream or a vehicle cream to blind spots on the skin of the buttocks twice daily for 14 days. Next, researchers applied a minimal erythema dose of UV radiation to the treated skin areas for 30 minutes. After 24 hours, they visually inspected the treated areas to clinically compare the erythema. They also performed five 4-mm punch biopsies from UVA and non-UVA–exposed treatment sites on each buttock, as well as from an untreated control site that was at least 5 cm away from the treated left buttock.

At 24 hours, 21% of study participants showed less redness on CBD-treated skin compared with control-treated skin, while histology showed that CBD-treated skin demonstrated reduced UVA-induced epidermal hyperplasia compared with control-treated skin (a mean 11.3% change from baseline vs 28.7%, respectively; P = .01). In other findings, application of CBD cream reduced DNA damage and DNA mutations associated with UVA-induced skin aging/damage and ultimately skin cancer.

In addition, the CBD-treated skin samples had a reduction in the UVA-associated increase in the premutagenic marker 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase 1 and a reduction of two major UVA-induced mitochondrial DNA deletions associated with skin photoaging.

The research, Friedman noted, “took a village of collaborators and almost 3 years to pull together,” including collaborating with his long-standing mentor, Brian Berman, MD, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, and a study coauthor. The study “demonstrated that purposeful delivery of CBD using an established nanoparticle platform…can have a quantifiable impact on preventing the expected DNA damage and cellular injury one should see from UVA exposure,” said Friedman, who codeveloped the nanoparticle platform with his father, Joel M. Friedman, MD, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City.

“Never before has a dermatologic study on topical cannabinoids dove so deeply into the biological impact of this natural ingredient to highlight its potential, here, as a mitigation strategy for unprotected exposure to prevent the downstream sequalae of UV radiation,” Friedman commented.

In the paper, he and his coauthors acknowledged certain limitations of their study, including its small sample size and the single-center design.

Friedman disclosed that he coinvented the nanoparticle technology used in the trial. The study was funded by MINO Labs. Berman is a consultant at MINO Labs. The remaining authors had no disclosures. The study was done in collaboration with the Center for Clinical and Cosmetic Research in Aventura, Florida.