Cannabinerol and NSC-34 Transcriptomic Analysis: Is the Dose Who Makes Neuronal Differentiation?

Cannabis sativa L. proved to be a source of several phytocompounds able to help patients facing different diseases. Moreover, these phytocompounds can help ameliorate general conditions and control certain unpleasant effects of diseases. Some cannabinoids, however, provided more benefits applicable to settings other than palliative care. Using the NSC-34 cell line, we evaluated the barely known phytocompound named cannabinerol (CBNR) at different doses, in order to understand its unique characteristics and the ones shared with other cannabinoids. The transcriptomic analysis suggests a possible ongoing neuronal differentiation, principally due to the activation of cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1), to which the phosphorylation of serine–threonine protein kinase (Akt) followed, especially between 20 and 7.5 µM. The increase of Neurod1 and Map2 genes at 7.5 µM, accompanied by a decrease of Vim, as well as the increase of Syp at all the other doses, point toward the initiation of differentiation signals. Our preliminary results indicate CBNR as a promising candidate to be added to the list of cannabinoids with neuronal differentiation-enhancer properties. However, further studies are needed to confirm this initial insight.