Researchers at University Hospital of the Technical University of Munich have found that cannabidiol (CBD) may help protect lung endothelial cells from the harmful side effects of radiation, which they outline in a new study.
Published in the journal Cancers, the study investigated CBD’s ability to shield the lung’s microvasculature from oxidative stress and inflammation caused by radiation therapy, which is commonly used to treat thoracic cancers.
Radiation therapy, while effective in targeting cancer, often damages surrounding healthy tissues, leading to serious conditions such as radiation-induced lung disease (RILD), including pneumonitis and fibrosis. The study’s authors aimed to determine whether CBD could mitigate these harmful effects. Using both in vitro and in vivo models, they observed that CBD reduced oxidative stress, DNA damage, and inflammation markers in irradiated lung endothelial cells.
According to the study, “a non-lethal dose of CBD reduces the irradiation-induced oxidative stress and early apoptosis of lung ECs by upregulating the expression of the cytoprotective mediator heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-1).” This upregulation of HO-1, combined with reductions in inflammatory and pro-angiogenic markers, points to CBD’s potential as a therapeutic option to counteract radiation’s adverse effects on healthy lung tissue.
In an in vivo setting, researchers administered CBD daily to mice before and after partial lung irradiation. Results showed that CBD-treated mice had significantly lower levels of inflammatory markers, which are often elevated by radiation exposure. The findings suggest that CBD could be a promising, non-toxic option to enhance the safety profile of radiation therapy for cancer patients by preserving lung health.
These results add to growing evidence that CBD has protective properties against cellular damage, positioning it as a potential adjunct treatment to improve outcomes in cancer therapies.
“CBD has the potential to improve the clinical outcome of radiotherapy by reducing toxic side effects on the microvasculature of the lung”, concludes the study’s authors.
The study’s full abstract can be found below, and its full text can be found by clicking here.
Abstract
Objective: Radiotherapy, which is commonly used for the local control of thoracic cancers, also induces chronic inflammatory responses in the microvasculature of surrounding normal tissues such as the lung and heart that contribute to fatal radiation-induced lung diseases (RILDs) such as pneumonitis and fibrosis. In this study, we investigated the potential of cannabidiol (CBD) to attenuate the irradiation damage to the vasculature. Methods: We investigated the ability of CBD to protect a murine endothelial cell (EC) line (H5V) and primary lung ECs isolated from C57BL/6 mice from irradiation-induced damage in vitro and lung ECs (luECs) in vivo, by measuring the induction of oxidative stress, DNA damage, apoptosis (in vitro), and induction of inflammatory and pro-angiogenic markers (in vivo). Results: We demonstrated that a non-lethal dose of CBD reduces the irradiation-induced oxidative stress and early apoptosis of lung ECs by upregulating the expression of the cytoprotective mediator heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-1). The radiation-induced increased expression of inflammatory (ICAM-2, MCAM) and pro-angiogenic (VE-cadherin, Endoglin) markers was significantly reduced by a continuous daily treatment of C57BL/6 mice with CBD (i.p. 20 mg/kg body weight), 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after a partial irradiation of the lung (less than 20% of the lung volume) with 16 Gy. Conclusions: CBD has the potential to improve the clinical outcome of radiotherapy by reducing toxic side effects on the microvasculature of the lung.
