Bioreactor-Based Suspension Cultures of <i>Cannabis sativa</i> for Enhanced Production of Anti-Inflammatory Cannabinoid Derivatives
<i>Cannabis sativa</i> synthesizes diverse cannabinoids with significant pharmacological value, but existing suspension cultures show low metabolite yields and limited scalability. This study establishes bioreactor-based cell suspension system to enhance cannabinoid biosynthesis in <i>C. sativa</i>. Petiole explants cultured on MS medium with 4 mg/L BAP and 0.01 mg/L NAA produced 95.83 ± 0.74% friable callus. Suspension cultures accumulated 352.29 ± 3.90 g/L fresh biomass in 28 days, showing 22.4-fold increase upon scale-up in stirred-tank bioreactor. Methanolic extracts (60 °C) showed strong anti-inflammatory activity, reducing TNF-α and IL-6 by 88.40 ± 0.87 and 92.03 ± 1.55% at 30 μg mL<sup>-1</sup> without cytotoxicity. Metabolomic profiling identified putative cannabinoid derivatives, with THCA-C1 (0.05%) exhibiting highest binding affinity (-8.4 kcal/mol) to inflammatory targets based on docking and dynamics analyses. Overall, these results provide the first evidence for scalable cannabinoid biosynthesis in bioreactor-grown <i>C. sativa</i> cell suspensions, underscoring their potential for sustainable production of anti-inflammatory therapeutics.
Authors
- Feroz Khan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2704-5925)
- Dnyaneshwar Umrao Bawankule (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0677-0981)
- Zafar Iqbal Warsi
- Laiq ur Rahman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3289-2755)
- Kahkashan Khatoon
- Tanya Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8104-0597)
- Gazala Parween
- Aqib Sarfraz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3618-4756)
- M.A. Beg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8495-4738)
- Monazza Israr
Institutions
- Plant Biotechnology Institute (CA)
- Computational Physics (United States) (US)
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics (RU)
- Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (IN)
- Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
- Published
- 2025-12-08
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.5c10683
- Primary Topic
- Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00