A United States cannabis pharmaceutical company has demonstrated that two cannabinoids, cannabichromene (CBC) and cannabigerol (CBG), exhibit anti-tumor properties when tested on human Gastrointestinal Cancer Cells (GCC).
Following a series of tests at their High Through-put Screening (HTS) facility in Israel, Maryland-based Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. recently announced their preliminary results, which CTO and Co-Founder Dr, Eyal Ballan say vindicate the company’s vision of bringing personalization into cannabinoid-based cancer treatments.
Dr. Ballan says that gastrointestinal cancers are among the most widespread causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide.
The head of Cannabics cannabidiol (CBD) research, Dr. Yaakov Waksman says his working assumption is that the results show that there may be a correlation between a cannabinoid’s Topological Polar Surface Area, and its ability to induce anti-cancer activity and diminish the viability rate of cancer cells.
Cannabics utilized the HTS platform during the research to test the necrotic effects of various cannabinoids on human GCC.
CBC and CBG demonstrated significantly higher rates of necrosis in human GCC compared to other cannabinoids.
Cannabics announced earlier this month that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with RCK Medical Cannabis in Israel to develop cannabis chemovars aimed at treating gastrointestinal cancers.
“We are intrigued to be involved in strain development designed to target cancer biopsies,” says RCKMC Co-Founder and CTO Dr. Noam Chehanovsky. “We have a large variety of strains and nurturing expertise, which together with our proprietary breeding technologies, lead to a wide range of chemotypes to be examined by Cannabics.”
Through the collaborative effort, Cannabics and RCKMC plan to cultivate cannabis chemovars with cannabinoid profiles that have demonstrated anti-tumor properties in preclinical studies on gastrointestinal cancers.
According to Cannabics, such strains will be the source of genetics for developing botanically-derived active pharmaceutical ingredients.
Dr. Ballan says that RCKMC is a pioneer in plant genetics and breeding whose expertise will synergize with Cannabics’ clinical capabilities to create bases for proprietary drug development from seed to formulation.
