van Es-Remers, Monique;
Spadaro, Jesus Arellano;
Poppelaars, Eefje;
Kim, Hye Kyong;
van Haaster, Marieke;
de Wit, Marcel;
ILiopoulou, Eva;
Wildwater, Marjolein;
Korthout, Henrie
C. elegans as a test system to study relevant compounds that contribute to the specific health-related effects of different cannabis varieties
Sie können Bookmarks mittels Listen verwalten, loggen Sie sich dafür bitte in Ihr SLUB Benutzerkonto ein.
Medientyp:
E-Artikel
Titel:
C. elegans as a test system to study relevant compounds that contribute to the specific health-related effects of different cannabis varieties
Beteiligte:
van Es-Remers, Monique;
Spadaro, Jesus Arellano;
Poppelaars, Eefje;
Kim, Hye Kyong;
van Haaster, Marieke;
de Wit, Marcel;
ILiopoulou, Eva;
Wildwater, Marjolein;
Korthout, Henrie
Erschienen:
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2022
Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Background</jats:title>
<jats:p>The medicinal effects of cannabis varieties on the market cannot be explained solely by the presence of the major cannabinoids Δ<jats:sup>9</jats:sup>-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Evidence for putative entourage effects caused by other compounds present in cannabis is hard to obtain due to the subjective nature of patient experience data. <jats:italic>Caenorhabditis elegans</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>C. elegans</jats:italic>) is an objective test system to identify cannabis compounds involved in claimed health and entourage effects.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Methods</jats:title>
<jats:p>From a medicinal cannabis breeding program by MariPharm BV, the Netherlands a set of 12 varieties were selected both THC rich varieties as well as CBD rich varieties. A consecutive extraction process was applied resulting in a non-polar (cannabinoid-rich) and polar (cannabinoid-poor) extract of each variety. The test model <jats:italic>C. elegans</jats:italic> was exposed to these extracts in a broad set of bioassays for appetite control, body oscillation, motility, and nervous system function.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Results</jats:title>
<jats:p>Exposing <jats:italic>C. elegans</jats:italic> to extracts with a high concentration of cannabinoids (> 1 μg/mL) reduces the life span of <jats:italic>C. elegans</jats:italic> dramatically. Exposing the nematodes to the low-cannabinoid (< 0.005 μg/mL) polar extracts, however, resulted in significant effects with respect to appetite control, body oscillation, motility, and nervous system-related functions in a dose-dependent and variety-dependent manner.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Discussion</jats:title>
<jats:p><jats:italic>C. elegans</jats:italic> is a small, transparent organism with a complete nervous system, behavior and is due to its genetic robustness and short life cycle highly suitable to unravel entourage effects of Cannabis compounds. Although <jats:italic>C. elegans</jats:italic> lacks an obvious CB1 and CB2 receptor it has orthologs of Serotonin and Vanilloid receptor which are also involved in (endo)cannabinoid signaling.</jats:p>
</jats:sec><jats:sec>
<jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title>
<jats:p>By using <jats:italic>C. elegans</jats:italic>, we were able to objectively distinguish different effects of different varieties despite the cannabinoid content. <jats:italic>C. elegans</jats:italic> seems a useful test system for studying entourage effects, for targeted medicinal cannabis breeding programs and product development.</jats:p>
</jats:sec>