Pharmaceuticals

Quinones of various chemical families serve as biological modulators and are widely used as antineoplastic drugs. Anthracyclines, daunorubicin and doxorubicin for example, are used to treat several forms of cancer. Other quinones (mitomycin C, streptonigrin, pirubicin and mitoxantrone) are also used as anticancer drugs. Although these and other quinonoid compounds are effective in the treatment of many different forms of cancer, their side effects, the most severe being cumulative heart toxicity, limit their use. The development of quinonoid compounds that display antineoplastic and/or anti-angiogenic activity, but are less toxic, is a major therapeutic goal.

Prof. Raphael Mechoulam from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, pioneer and awarded investigator in cannabinoids research, developed a novel anticancer cannabinoid quinone scaffold of compounds synthesized from cannabidiol, one of the most abundant but not psychoactive cannabinoids of Cannabis sativa.

For example one of our compounds, HU-331 (cannabidiol hydroxyquinone), demonstrated a significantly high anti-proliferative effect against various human cancer cell lines in vitro. HU-331 did not cause cancer cell cycle arrest, by apoptosis or caspase activation, and was not mediated by reactive oxygen species. It specifically inhibited DNA topoisomerase II. In vivo, HU-331 was more active in inhibiting tumor xenografts in nude mice then doxorubicin with much less cardiotoxic effect and general toxicity profile.

We have also found that HU-331 is strongly anti-angiogenic both in-vitro, ex-vivo and in-vivo, by inducing apoptosis of vascular endothelial cells.

Taken together, we consider cannabinoid quinones, to have high potential as a new anti-angiogenic and anticancer chemotherapeutic drugs. Currently, we are testing our library of compounds for their efficacy to inhibit different kind of cancers and further developing our first lead compound into clinical trials.
 
Management

Dr. Natalya Kogan – Founder and CTO
Prof. Raphael Mechoulam – Director

Therapeutic use of quinonoid derivatives of cannabinoids (WO-2005/067917, EP1706110)

 

The company is seeking a partnership with a Pharmaceutical company or a private equity investor in order to advance the drug development process into clinical trials.