The Inhaled CBD reduces the size of the glioblastoma: a highly aggressive and lethal brain tumor. The experimentation took place in an animal model. The compound works by reducing the essential support of the tumor microenvironment.
“We saw a significant reduction in the size of the tumor and its microenvironment was different “, says Dr. Babak Baban, immunologist and associate dean for research at the Dental College of Georgia of the University of Augusta, after only seven days of treatment.
The results of the Research have been published in the scientific journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research..
Benefits of CBD on glioblastoma: here’s what the research says
Researchers from the DCG and the Medical College of Georgia say the inhaler approach not only helped ensure that the compound found in cannabis reached the brain, but that the method of administration could, just like asthma inhalers. , eventually be easily used by patients.
Using human-modified glioblastoma cells, scientists created what is called an orthotopic glioblastoma model, to provide the most realistic model possible for this most common and lethal malignant brain tumor. On day eight, the tumor settled in the brains of the mice, and on day nine, the researchers began administering daily doses of inhaled CBD or a placebo that continued for seven days. They then re-analyzed an image of the tumor and directly the tumor tissue.
While the approach is likely easily applicable to humans, at this juncture, experts are primarily looking at the biological response of cancer to CBD, said Dr. Martin Rutkowski, a MCG neurosurgeon whose experience includes surgery on these patients who tend to present after a sudden attack or loss of consciousness or with slower onset of neurological deficits such as a weak arm, visual or cognitive problems.
“It is probably one of the most aggressive cancers. We are in dire need of research and more treatments“Says the neurosurgeon and co-author of the study. “What we have right now is not working very well “.
Today’s treatments include surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. “Surgery does not offer a cure, but it does offer an important first step in maximizing quality of life and prognosis“, Says Rutkowski, specifying that there is a clear relationship between the amount of tumor that can be removed surgically and the duration of survival.
Experts found that CBD appears adept at altering the tumor ecosystem, or supporting tumor microenvironment, including restoring the levels of inflammation that affect rather than protect glioblastomawhich could make it a safe, effective and new adjunct therapy for patients affected by it.
“It’s about immune balance”, he has declared Baban, author of the study. Inflammation is increased in response to a front-line attack on a tumor, which is a normal response. In fact, our immune system regularly attacks cancerous or precancerous cells, but when a tumor is able to establish itself, the tumor takes over, going into a more chronic state of inflammation that eventually protects it from the immune system.
The tumor microenvironment established by cancer cells includes immune cells, blood vessels and growth factors to allow for greater development of blood vessels, which are key to tumor growth and survival, allowing it to thrive where it begins and spread.
For a glioblastoma, the tumor microenvironment has been shown to have greater activity than natural immune checkpoints, which as the name suggests, helps prevent an overzealous immune response that could harm the body, as occurs in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. . But in this case, dampening means protecting the tumor. There is also a particularly small presence of cytotoxic T cells, which are particularly adept at putting a tumor or other invader in the crosshairs.
CBD was able to enhance the immune mix against the tumor, including the reduction of glial cell co-optation by the tumor, a type of brain cell that normally protects neurons, including producing inflammation to fight invaders, up to instead, it becomes an important component of the tumor, now called associated macrophage glioblastoma, which helps support and protect it.
It also suppressed the protein P-selectin, which typically plays a role in important functions like injury repair, and one of the things it recruits to help are platelets. However, in cancer, P-selectin helps tumors to spread and be resistant to treatment, in fact it is a focal point for new cancer treatments. Like many other inhabitants of the microenvironment, there is some evidence that one way P-selectin works for tumors is by serving as an immune checkpoint as well.
L’apelina, a pervasive enzyme produced by many different cell types, is normally present at low levels in the brain. But in glioblastoma its expression is much higher, the researchers explain, and it supports critical blood vessel growth, as well as promoting cancer stem cells that are thought to give birth to the tumor, as well as being the key to resistance to the cancer. tumor to treatment.
There is also evidence that apelin functions as an immune checkpoint in the tumor microenvironment, and others have shown that inhibiting apelin, which CBD does, reduces the growth rate of the deadly brain tumor.
CBD also suppresses IL-8, which macrophages normally release to promote inflammation and aid injury repair, and which recruits other immune cells in the process. But glioblastoma also secretes IL-8 to help promote cell migration and angiogenesis, and its level has been shown to be elevated in many cancers, including glioblastoma.
Indeed, these rapidly growing tumors are capable of making blood vessels grow, which in turn support their growth, and drugs that target this specific ability have been shown to help.
CBD also lowers other key immune checkpoints, such as indoleamine enzyme 2,3 dioxygenase or IDO, another localized blockade to the immune response that tumors are known to use.
CBD also improved the mix by increasing the expression of some good functions, such as CD103, a complex dynamic to help the immune system recognize cancer, and which is generally associated with a better prognosis of cancer, as is the CD8, a sugar-coated protein that also aids an immune response. There is evidence that they suppress immune checkpoints, which CBD does, raises the levels of both.
“It’s a puzzle and that’s why we need good immune regulators”says Baban. “CBD is a very smart regulator “, which can make changes based on its environment, such as lowering apelin in glioblastoma and increasing in front of COVID-damaged lungs.
The DCG and MCG researchers reported last year that CBD actually increases apelin levels, which they have been shown to decrease with an infection. SARS-CoV-2, and in that scenario, the increase in apelin reduces inflammation and “cytokine stormWhich caused the destruction in the lungs of patients affected by the virus.
“At the moment we are thrilled that the tumor is shrinking “, Baban noted of the cannabinoid’s impact in glioblastoma. He and Rutkowski noted that the positive results of inhaled CBD occurred without being performed in tandem with other therapies, such as surgery. Scientists have anticipated that if CBD is eventually used for these patients, it will be a new addition to these therapies.
The next steps include seeing how long positive changes last and looking further at the impact on cancer stem cells. Scientists also want to evaluate the impact of CBD on high glioblastoma recurrence rates. They have more hopeful evidence: In a previous study they incubated cancer cells in CBD prior to implantation, and they were not found to be tumors, Baban said.
The latest significant advancement in the treatment of glioblastoma came more than 15 years ago, with the addition of the chemotherapy drug temozolamide to radiation, which prolonged survival by about a month and a half and was celebrated by both patients and healthcare professionals. , recalled Rutkowski.
CBD’s ability to control inflammation and their research experience with other conditions where inflammation is key, including Alzheimer’s, have led Baban and his colleagues to pursue the cannabis derivative for glioblastoma.
Other researchers are looking at CBD in combination with other cannabis derivatives, including THC, but because CBD is such an interactive compound, even with other active compounds in cannabis, such as THC, the DCG and MCG researchers thought that it would have been more effective on its own.
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