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MGC Pharmaceuticals advances cannabinoid treatment of glioblastoma towards clinical trials

Published: 15:02 17 Nov 2020 AEDT

MGC Pharmaceuticals Ltd - MGC Pharmaceuticals advances cannabinoid treatment of glioblastoma towards clinical trials
“Results seen in our pre-clinical work … continue to be very encouraging,” says MD

MGC Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:MXC) (OTCMKTS:MGCLF) has received further encouraging results from its glioblastoma pre-clinical trial, showing that cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabigerol (CBG) can effectively inhibit cancerous cells.

A laboratory-based pre-clinical program is evaluating the use of CBD and CBG in treating glioblastoma, which is a particularly aggressive and deadly cancer affecting the brain or spinal cord.

Cytotoxic effect produced

The latest results show that MGC’s proprietary CBD:CBG formulation produced a cytotoxic (cell-killing) effect on glioblastoma cells by encouraging apoptosis (cell death) for the targeted cells.

MGC’s co-founder and managing director Roby Zomer said the company was progressing well towards in-human clinical trials.

“The results we have seen in our pre-clinical work on glioblastoma continue to be very encouraging,” he said.

Preparations for next stage

“We are constantly learning more about the therapeutic benefits of medicinal cannabinoids in the treatment of a number of medical conditions and are pleased to report the company will now begin preparations for the next stage of clinical trial work on glioblastoma.”

Glioblastoma is the most common brain cancer in adults, accounting for 75 per cent of malignant brain tumours, and it is among the deadliest cancers, with a one-year survival rate after diagnosis of just 38 per cent, plummeting to 6 per cent after four years.

MGC is attempting to find an effective treatment for the disease, in collaboration with the National Institute of Biology (NIB) and the Neurosurgery Department at the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Patient tumour samples

Results announced today come from 18 patient tumour samples and demonstrate the efficacy of the company’s CBD:CBG formulation in differing ratios.

The CBD component inhibits the growth of the tumour while the CBG sets off a cascade of biological processes which lead to glioblastoma cell death.

Importantly, the results also demonstrated that combining the two was advantageous to single treatment.

The CBG results are of particular interest. CBG has been poorly researched thus far, but is showing in low doses to inhibit the invasion of glioblastoma cells and glioblastoma stem cells, the latter of which are the root of the disease’s progression and highly resistant to existing treatments.

MGC Pharma will now proceed with in-animal pre-clinical studies, first in zebra fish and then in rodents, before progressing to humans should the results continue to succeed.

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