In a first, Rehovot engineers out of Israel have enhanced medical cannabis strains with 20% more THC.
The accomplishment will help develop new strains for users and increase crop yields.
Researchers at the lab of Prof. Alexander (Sasha) Vainstein at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment in Rehovot – in partnership with and funding from Mariana Bioscience Ltd. near Rehovot – have successfully engineered a cannabis plant with higher levels of medically important substances such as THC.
They increased the level of THC by almost 17%, and the level of CBG, another compound, by up to 25%.
Vainstein and his team were able to increase the ratio of terpenes, which are responsible for maximizing the euphoric effects of cannabis by 20% to 30%.
The researchers had been trying to find a way to intervene in the biochemical pathways in the cannabis plant to increase or decrease the production of active substances. They were able to manipulate a plant-based virus that had first been neutralized. In that way, it could not harm the plant. They then manipulated it to express the genes that influence the production of active substances in the cannabis plant.
“This represents an innovative use of these tools, which were constructed using synthetic biology tools,” explained Vainstein. “Next, we developed an innovative technology based on infection with an engineered virus to facilitate chemical reactions that increase the quantities of desired substances. In collaboration with Mariana Bioscience Ltd., we examined the infected plants and found that the levels of the substances in question had indeed risen.”
“These study results will be valuable both to industry, to increase the yield of active substances, and to medical researchers to cultivate and develop new strains for medical cannabis users,” said Vainstein. He added that more extensive experiments with the engineered plant are currently underway and should be available to cannabis industry leaders and medical research in the next few months.
