Potential for Cannabinoids
As discussed earlier, nanoparticle drones are particularly attractive because they can also be loaded with drugs payload like cannabinoids. Cannabinoids, which are the bioactive components of Cannabis sativa and their derivatives, may exert palliative effects in cancer patients by preventing nausea, vomiting, and pain and by stimulating appetite (12). Furthermore, studies indicate that cannabinoids can inhibit cancer cell growth in in vitro and in vivo. A Nature Reviews Cancer article (12) and other recently published work (22–24) highlight the potential of cannabinoids for treating cancer, working in synergy with radiotherapy and serving as radiosensitzers to enhance damage to lung tumor cells in particular.
Consistent with this, our own experiments have confirmed the potential of cannabinoids in treating lung cancer,
with results confirming that cannabinoids can enhance damage to cancer cells.
In one study, the damage to lung tumor cells was found to be similar to that equivalent to 4 Gy of radiotherapy dose. Results indicate that the interaction can be synergistic with radiation. Such synergy with radiotherapy was seen when cannabinoid concentrations of 2 µg/ml were used. Previous studies have also shown synergistic interaction of cannabinoids with radiotherapy in vivo (23).
