Smoking marijuana will not protect you from the new coronavirus, no matter what anyone says and no matter how much some people want it to be true.
However, if taken correctly and in the right amount, the CBD cannabis compound could reduce the severity of COVID-19 infection and even prevent the virus from spreading, according to new research published this week.
In addition, new anecdotal evidence suggests that humans, not laboratory mice or isolated human cells, but humans, who were prescribed regular high-dose doses of pharmaceutical-grade CBD were less prone to COVID, according to research published Thursday in the journal Science Advances.
“Our research suggests that CBD and its metabolite 7-OH-CBD,” which is a compound produced after the body processes CBD, “may block SARS-Cov-2 infection in the early stages and even after the infection, “the researchers wrote. led by academics from the University of Chicago.
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Thursday’s findings come after an investigation published last week found that cannibiodic acid, or CBD-A, the forerunner molecule of CBD, as well as other similar cannabis acids that become familiar cannabinoids when used. ‘warmed up, prevented the coronavirus from entering isolated areas. human cells.
Taken together, these findings are fueling a misconception that smoking cannabis or taking over-the-counter CBD drops is a useful tool against COVID. They are not.
What can be said about the findings that drugs or cannabis-derived preparations could complement vaccines in the fight to end the nearly two-year-old COVID-19 pandemic?
But, and researchers can’t stress it enough, what it doesn’t mean is that smoking a pig treats COVID. And your over-the-counter CBD drops won’t either.
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In the interviews, the researchers highlighted both the potential importance of their work and its limitations.
“As a final result, what this says is that CBD has the potential to prevent infections, such as innovative infections, which could be one of the most useful applications,” said Marsha Rosner, a professor of cancer research at the University of Chicago and lead author of the study said in an interview with VICE’s vertical motherboard.
However, as the researchers wrote, the findings were limited to CBD only, and only to certain high-grade CBD preparations that provide a very large dose of the compound.
“Going to the bakery around your corner and buying some CBD or gummy cupcakes will probably do nothing,” Rosner said in a press release.
And nothing in the study indicates that CBD is a replacement for existing preventative measures, such as masking and vaccinations, both things that researchers hope people will continue to do.
“What we don’t want,” he added, “is for people to just stop and think, ‘I can take CBD, and then I don’t have to get vaccinated or mask myself.’
“That’s what we really don’t want to see.”
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Rosner and colleagues treated human lung cells with CBD before infecting them with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. And they found that “CBD potently inhibited viral replication under non-toxic conditions,” they wrote, adding that other cannabinoids, including “psychoactive THC,” did not.
“Remarkably,” they wrote, “only CBD was a powerful agent.”
How did the CBD do it? The cannabinoid appears to trigger a cellular stress response that is usually triggered in the presence of “viruses or other pathogens,” Rosner said in a telephone interview Friday. This response to stress produces a series of proteins called interferons. I
“CBD induces the production of interferons, and they are the antivirals that will fight the virus,” Rosner said.
CBD also prevented the virus from making other changes to infected host cells.
But cells are cells, not living things. To test the findings on living things, which last week’s study did not do, the female mice were given two loads of CBD: 20 or 80 mg per kilogram of body weight.
This is a pretty substantial dose that could be exorbitantly expensive: a 150-pound person would have to take a heroic 5,440 milligrams of CBD to match mice, and some companies sell 10,000 milligrams, or less than two doses, for 250 dollars.
However, some will argue that money and CBD are well spent.
According to the researchers, mice that took 80 milligrams of CBD per pound of weight saw decreases in viral loads in the lungs and nose up to “40 and 4.8 times.”
And finally, there is some evidence that these studies on mice and test tubes will be translated into humans.
Epidiolex is a CBD-based pharmaceutical drug approved by prescription from the Federal Food and Drug Administration for patients with severe seizure disorders.
A review of 1,212 patients in a data set called the National COVID Cohort Collaborative found that the rate of COVID infection among people with a “medication record” of taking pharmaceutical-grade CBD was 6.2 percent, in compared to 8.9 percent of people who do not take CBD, the researchers wrote.
But the preventive potential of CBD was even more pronounced for people who took CBD on the same day as COVID-19 testing. For a subset of 531 patients “who were probably taking” 100 milligrams of CBD, their positivity rate was 4.9 percent, compared to the 9 percent rate among a control group that did not. he was taking the drug.
Looking to the future, Rosner and colleagues hope that human clinical trials can begin, and begin soon, as the pandemic progresses through historically high levels of infections and hospitalizations, a terrible winter scare fueled by the omicron variant.
“We look forward to seeing some clinical trials on this topic,” Rosner told the University of Chicago News Service.
“Especially when we are seeing that the pandemic is not yet nearing its end,” he added, “determining whether this generally safe, well-tolerated, non-psychoactive cannabinoid can have antiviral effects against COVID-19 is critical.”
