Thursday, 28 March, 2024
HomeOncologyInhaled CBD shrinks glioblastoma in animal model

Inhaled CBD shrinks glioblastoma in animal model

Inhaled CBD (cannabidiol) shrinks the size of the highly aggressive, lethal brain tumour glioblastoma in an animal model by reducing the essential support of its microenvironment, US researchers report.

“We saw a significant reduction in the size of the tumour and its microenvironment was different,” said Dr Babak Baban, immunologist and associate dean for research at the Dental College of Georgia (DCG) at Augusta University, after only seven days of treatment.

Researchers at DCG and the Medical College of Georgia say that the inhaler approach not only helped ensure the compound found in cannabis reached the brain, but that the method of delivery could, much like asthma inhalers, eventually be easily used by patients.

It was the first study to use CBD in an animal model of glioblastoma, they report in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

Using modified glioblastoma cells from humans, they created what is called an orthotopic glioblastoma model, to provide the most realistic model they could for this most common and lethal malignant brain tumour. By day eight the aggressive tumour was established in the brain of the mice, and at day 9 they started giving daily doses of inhaled CBD or a placebo that continued for seven days. They then looked again at an image of the tumour and directly at the tumour tissue.

While the approach is possibly easily applicable to humans, at this juncture they are looking primarily at the biological response of the tumour to CBD, said Dr Martin Rutkowski, MCG neurosurgeon whose expertise includes operating on these patients who tend to present after a seizure or sudden loss of consciousness, or with slower onset of neurological deficits like a weak arm, vision or cognitive problems.

“It’s probably one of the most aggressive cancers period. We are in desperate need of research and more treatments,” said the neurosurgeon and study co-author. “What we have right now is not working very well,” he added. “Family will bring in patients and say they are just not thinking right, that their memory is all over the place, or that they got fired from their job because they are no longer doing things right that they have been doing for thirty years.”

Today’s treatment includes surgery, followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy. “Surgery does not offer a cure but it does offer an important first step in maximising quality of life and prognosis,” Rutkowski said, noting there is a clear relationship between the amount of tumour that can be removed surgically and the length of survival.

They found that CBD appears adept at altering the tumour’s ecosystem, or supportive tumour microenvironment, including restoring levels of inflammation that target rather than protect the glioblastoma, which could make it a safe, effective and novel adjunct therapy for these patients.

“It is about immune balance,” said Baban, corresponding author. Inflammation is heightened in response to a frontline attack on a tumour, which is a normal response; in fact our immune system is regularly attacking cancerous or precancerous cells. But when a tumour manages to become established, the tumour takes charge, switching to producing a state of more chronic inflammation that ultimately protects it from the immune system, he explained.

The tumour microenvironment established by the cancer cells includes things like immune cells as well as blood vessels and growth factors to enable more blood vessel growth, which is key to tumour growth and survival, enabling it to thrive where it starts and to spread.

For a glioblastoma, the tumour microenvironment has been shown to increase activity of natural immune checkpoints, which as their name implies, help prevent an overzealous immune response that could hurt the body, like what happens in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. But in this case the damping down means protecting the tumour. There also is a notably small presence of cytotoxic T cells, which are particularly adept at putting a tumour or other invader in the crosshairs.

CBD was able to improve the immune mix against the tumour, including reducing its co-opting of glial cells, a brain cell type that normally protects neurons, including producing inflammation to fight invaders, into instead becoming a major component of the tumour, now called a glioblastoma associated macrophage, 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 is platelets.

However in cancer, P-selectin helps tumours spread and become treatment-resistant: in fact it’s a focus for new cancer treatments. Like many other inhabitants of the microenvironment, there is some evidence that one way P-selectin works for tumours is by also serving as an immune checkpoint.

Apelin, a pervasive enzyme made by a lot of different cell types, is normally present at low levels in the brain. But in glioblastoma its expression is much higher, the researchers say, and it supports critical blood vessel growth, in addition to promoting the cancer stem cells thought to birth the tumour as well as being key to the tumour's resistance to treatment. There also is evidence that apelin functions as an immune checkpoint in the tumour microenvironment, and others have shown that inhibiting apelin, which CBD does, decreases the growth rate of the deadly brain tumour.

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 high in many cancers, including glioblastoma. In fact, these fast- growing tumours are good at growing blood vessels, which in turn support their growth, and drugs that target this specific skill have been shown to help.

CBD also reduces other key immune checkpoints, like the enzyme indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase, or IDO, another localised blockade to the immune response that tumours are known to use.

CBD also improved the mix by increasing expression of some good things, like CD103, a complex thought to help the immune system recognise cancer, which is generally associated with a better cancer prognosis, as well as CD8, a sugar-coated protein that also aids an immune response. There is evidence that suppressing immune checkpoints, which CBD does, drives levels of both up.

“It is a puzzle and that is why we need good immune regulators,” said Baban. “CBD is a very smart regulator that can make adjustments based on its environment, like turning apelin down in glioblastoma and up in the face of lungs damaged by COVID.”

DCG and MCG investigators reported last year that CBD actually increases levels of apelin, which they have shown go way down with a SARS-CoV-2 infection. In that scenario the apelin increase reduces inflammation and the “cytokine storm” that has wreaked destruction in the lungs of patients.

“Right now we are excited that the tumour shrinks,” Baban said of the cannabinoid’s impact in glioblastoma. He and Rutkowski noted that the positive results from inhaled CBD occurred without being done in tandem with other therapies, like surgery. They anticipate that if CBD is eventually used for these patients, it will be a novel adjunct to these therapies.

Next steps include seeing how long the positive changes last and looking further at the impact on cancer stem cells. They also want to assess CBD’s impact on the high recurrence rates of glioblastoma. They have more evidence for hope: In an earlier study they incubated the tumour cells in CBD before implantation, and no tumours resulted.

The latest significant advance in treating glioblastoma came more than 15 years ago, with the addition of the chemotherapy drug temozolamide to radiation, which extended survival by about one and one half months and was celebrated by patients and caregivers alike, Rutkowski said.

CBD’s skill at controlling inflammation, and their research experience with other conditions where inflammation is key, including Alzheimer’s, 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, including with other active compounds in cannabis, like THC, the DCG and MCG researchers thought it would be more effective alone.

Study details

Inhalant Cannabidiol Inhibits Glioblastoma Progression Through Regulation of Tumor Microenvironment

Hesam Khodadadi, Évila Lopes Salles, Ahmet Alptekin, Daniel Mehrabian, Martin Rutkowski, Ali Arbab, W. Andrew Yeudall, Jack Yu, John Morgan, David Hess, Kumar Vaibhav, Krishnan Dhandapani, Babak Baban.

Published in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research on 16 December 2021

Abstract

Introduction
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common invasive brain tumour composed of diverse cell types with poor prognosis. The highly complex tumour microenvironment (TME) and its interaction with tumor cells play important roles in the development, progression, and durability of GBM. Angiogenic and immune factors are two major components of TME of GBM; their interplay is a major determinant of tumour vascularisation, immune profile, as well as immune unresponsiveness of GBM. Given the ineffectiveness of current standard therapies (surgery, radiotherapy, and concomitant chemotherapy) in managing patients with GBM, it is necessary to develop new ways of treating these lethal brain tumours. Targeting TME, altering tumour ecosystem, may be a viable therapeutic strategy with beneficial effects for patients in their fight against GBM.

Materials and Methods
Given the potential therapeutic effects of cannabidiol (CBD) in a wide spectrum of diseases, including malignancies, we tested, for the first time, whether inhalant CBD can inhibit GBM tumour growth using a well-established orthotopic murine model. Optical imaging, histology, immunohistochemistry, and flow cytometry were employed to describe the outcomes such as tumour progression, cancer cell signalling pathways, and the TME.

Results
Our findings showed that inhalation of CBD was able to not only limit the tumour growth but also to alter the dynamics of TME by repressing P-selectin, apelin, and interleukin (IL)-8, as well as blocking a key immune checkpoint—indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO). In addition, CBD enhanced the cluster of differentiation (CD) 103 expression, indicating improved antigen presentation, promoted CD8 immune responses, and reduced innate Lymphoid Cells within the tumor.

Conclusion
Overall, our novel findings support the possible therapeutic role of inhaled CBD as an effective, relatively safe, and easy to administer treatment adjunct for GBM with significant impacts on the cellular and molecular signalling of TME, warranting further research.

 

Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research abstract- Inhalant Cannabidiol Inhibits Glioblastoma Progression Through Regulation of Tumor Microenvironment (Open access)

 

See more from MedicalBrief archives:

 

Glioblastoma: First trial for oral cannabinoids plus chemotherapy

 

Immunotherapy combination shows early promise in glioblastoma

 

After 50 years, US opens the door for more cannabis research

 

FDA working to regulate the cannabidiol 'cure-all' deluge

 

 

MedicalBrief — our free weekly e-newsletter

We'd appreciate as much information as possible, however only an email address is required.