Author(s)

Ashraf Duzan^1,2,3*, Mufeed Basti², Travis Cesarone⁴, Waldemar Debinski⁵, Daniel Todd⁶

¹Wingate University School of Pharmacy, Wingate University, Wingate, NC, USA.
²Applied Science and Technology Department, North Carolina State University of Agriculture and Technology, Greensboro, NC, USA.
³Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Health Professions Division, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, USA.
⁴Uprooted Concepts, British Columbia, Victoria, Canada.
⁵Brain Tumor Center of Excellence, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd, Winston Salem, NC, USA.
⁶Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) represents one of the most aggressive and metastatic brain tumors, with a dismal success rate of less than three percent after five years, particularly in tumors with active immune checkpoints. This necessitates the development of targeted endogenous agents for precise GBM treatment. Previous experiments utilizing Chemovar Specific Cannabis Extractions (CSCEs), fractionated with polar solvents and quantified using Liquid and Gas Column Chromatography combined with Mass Spectrometry (LC/GCMS), have shown reduced viability and motility in human GBM cell lines. However, the complexity of the botanical substance has hindered the personalization of standard cannabis medicines for GBM due to unknown synergistic effects of multiple compounds. To address this limitation, our study focuses on exposing AM251 cells to chemovar fractions extracted using a non-polar solvent, thereby isolating a broader spectrum of constituents. By employing LC/GCMS in conjunction with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), we have identified and quantified nine* compounds present in the non-polar CSCE that exhibit significant efficacy (0.1 μM) in inducing cytotoxicity* in GBM tumor cells. Conversely, the polar fraction in our experiment did not demonstrate efficacy against UM251 cells. The quantification of individual compounds within a cannabis extraction that selectively induces cell death in brain tumors holds promise for guiding future research and facilitating the development of a standardized CSCE for GBM therapy.

Cannabinoids, Liquid Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS), Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), Total Correlation Spectroscopy (TOCSY), Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)

Duzan, A. , Basti, M. , Cesarone, T. , Debinski, W. and Todd, D. (2023) Exploring Chemovar-Specific Cannabis Extracts Quantification and Evaluation of Cytotoxic Compounds for Targeting Glioblastoma Multiforme. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 11, 192-207. doi: 10.4236/jbm.2023.118015.