Background

Approximately 25,000 people die each year of cirrhosis in the United States. The leading causes of cirrhosis are viral hepatitis, alcoholism and obesity-related liver diseases. Close to 1 million people suffer from this disease, which is the 7th leading cause of death in the United States, and whose only effective treatment is liver transplantation. It is known that cannabinoid receptors are up regulated in the liver during liver fibrosis, and the blockade of the CB1 subtype of the receptor has been shown to inhibit fibrogenesis, offering an approach for the treatment of cirrhosis. However, as CB1R expression is not localized specifically to the liver (in fact, CB1R’s are likely the most widely expressed GPCR in the brain), the treatment