Abstract

Oral ulcer is a common oral inflammatory lesion accompanied by severe pain but with few effective treatments. Cannabidiol (CBD) is recently emerging for its therapeutic potential in a range of diseases, including inflammatory conditions and cancers. Here we show that CBD oral spray on acid- or trauma-induced oral ulcers on mice tongue inhibits inflammation, relieves pain, and accelerates lesion closure. Notably, the enrichment of genes associated with the NOD, LRR, and NLRP3 pyrin domain–containing protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome pathway is downregulated after CBD treatment. The expression of cleaved-gasdermin D (GSDMD) and the percentage of pyroptotic cells are reduced as well. In addition, CBD decreases the expression of cytidine/uridine monophosphate kinase 2 (CMPK2), which subsequently inhibits the generation of oxidized mitochondria DNA and suppresses inflammasome activation. These immunomodulating effects of CBD are mostly blocked by peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ (PPARγ) antagonist and partially antagonized by CB1 receptor antagonist. Our results demonstrate that CBD accelerates oral ulcer healing by inhibiting CMPK2-mediated NLRP3 inflammasome activation and pyroptosis, which are mediated mostly by PPARγ in the nucleus and partially by CB1 in the plasma membrane.