“The satisfaction that comes with a perfect little spherical gel bead”: Preparing ingestible forms of psilocybin and CBD to treat mental health disorders

(Photos provided by Emily Sabean)

“The goal of this project is to create a drug delivery vehicle (i.e. a way to package medications so they can be ingested) that contains CBD and psilocybin for the treatment of mental health disorders. Briefly put, CBD is a compound (i.e. a type of chemical) found in cannabis that has been associated with alleviating anxiety and insomnia, and psilocybin is a compound found in a certain type of mushroom that can cause euphoria, peacefulness, and vivid hallucinations. The goal is that CBD will be released from the delivery vehicle prior to psilocybin. Releasing CBD first will calm a patient before they experience the effects from psilocybin.” ~Emily Sabean

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*In the following article, TS refers to The Synapse, and ES refers to Emily Sabean;

TS: Could you briefly introduce yourself, your supervisor, the topic of your thesis, and the field it contributes to?

ES: My name is Emily Sabean. I am from Digby, Nova Scotia and I am entering my final year of my Master of Science in Chemistry at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. I also completed my Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Chemistry at Acadia University.

My research for my master’s thesis is titled Nanogel Formulations to Deliver Psilocybin and CBD for the Treatment of Mental Health Disorders. This work is about finding a way to put CBD and psilocybin - two plant-based substances with medicinal properties - into a form where they can be taken as a medication.

This work is supervised by Dr. Nicoletta Faraone at Acadia University, and is in collaboration with Halucenex Life Sciences in Windsor, Nova Scotia, a company that researches how psychoactive substances can be used for treating mental health conditions. This research contributes to the fields of chemistry and health.

TS: What is the inspiration for your study, and the research goal?

ES: Mental health disorders are a major public health issue across the world today. As of 2020, it was estimated that 1 billion people may be affected by a mental health disorder.

For depressive disorders, antidepressant medications are prescribed very commonly as treatment. But large scale studies show a concerningly low response rate to antidepressants. Specifically, 30-40% of individuals with depressive disorders fail to respond to antidepressant medications; 60-70% fail to completely lose their symptoms; and almost 20% fail to recover after two years of treatment. Despite these statistics, no novel medications for treating depression have come to the market in over 20 years.

The goal of this project is to create a drug delivery vehicle (i.e. a way to package medications so they can be ingested) that contains CBD and psilocybin for the treatment of mental health disorders. Briefly put, CBD is a compound (i.e. a type of chemical) found in cannabis that has been associated with alleviating anxiety and insomnia, and psilocybin is a compound found in a certain type of mushroom that can cause euphoria, peacefulness, and vivid hallucinations.

The goal is that CBD will be released from the delivery vehicle prior to psilocybin. Releasing CBD first will calm a patient before they experience the effects from psilocybin.

TS: Could you provide a brief summary of the experimental procedure used in this study?

ES: CBD is a hydrophobic substance, which means that it does not like water and so does not mix with it. As our human bodies are largely composed of water, they cannot break down hydrophobic substances like CBD. To get around this, CBD can be mixed with another substance that our body can break down. Our bodies can break down CBD when it is in a mixture with something else that makes it more soluble (i.e. able to be dissolved) in water. This mixture is called an emulsion. We then sought to encapsulate these mixtures into solid beads so they could theoretically be ingested.

In the beginning stages of the project, we used a similar compound in place of CBD as the active ingredient. After the beads were created, we re-extracted the active ingredient from them and analyzed the encapsulation efficiency (i.e. the amount of active ingredient in the capsules) using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography, a method for separating different compounds in a sample. We also did stability studies to try to determine whether the amount of active ingredient would decrease over time.

Once the most reliable method for encapsulation was determined, we attempted the procedure with CBD. The procedure did work with CBD, but is currently being adjusted to be improved. Encapsulations will also be carried out with psilocybin, and the CBD/psilocybin mixture, in the future.

TS: What are the main results you observed?

ES: So far, we have observed great results with the encapsulation of the first active ingredient. The encapsulation is efficient, and the beads are seeming to hold up quite well in stability studies. As for CBD, we are not having as much luck. However, I have ideas on how to improve this which are currently in progress. Hopefully, I will be able to give an update on this project one day!

TS: What would you consider the most intriguing part of the research process?

ES: It is kind of difficult to narrow down the most intriguing part of the research process. I find my topic as a whole extremely interesting and fun to learn about. I guess I would say the most intriguing part is actually preparing the encapsulations, and the satisfaction that comes with a perfect little spherical gel bead.

TS: Is there anything else you wish to share about your study or research experience?

ES: Nope! But I will use this opportunity to add my LinkedIn. Ψ

Created for The Synapse by Incé Husain