Hello, hivers!
I haven't written anything related to cannabis in quite some time, though I've continued to support the cannabis community on hive for quite a while. I haven't written anything cannabis related in a while simply because I haven't had anything to write about.
A news item came up on my Yahoo news feed yesterday that I thought was interesting, it talked about a study from Oregon, U.S.A. that was investigating if cannabis has anti-viral uses. Honestly, I didn't read too far into the article. Then I saw a post in my hive feed discussing this topic, so I decided look into the subject further.
Upon doing a google search, I found a number of articles about the subject. I would like to bring 3 of these articles to your attention for further information.
The first article was published in March of 2021. This article comes from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7987002/
This article discusses experiments done with cannabidiol to test for inhibition of viruses, and specifically the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus.
This is the summary sentence from the article.
"Cannabidiol from the cannabis plant has potential to prevent and inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection"
In this article, their experiments found that CBD was the primary inhibitor of the virus, and that THC had the potential to block the effectiveness of the inhibition by CBD. For further information about this, please read the linked article.
The second article that I would like to bring to your attention is much more recent. This article was published by Oregon State University on January 10, 2022.
https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/oregon-state-research-shows-hemp-compounds-prevent-coronavirus-entering-human-cells
This is a quote from that article.
" Van Breemen and collaborators, including scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, found that a pair of cannabinoid acids bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, blocking a critical step in the process the virus uses to infect people.
The compounds are cannabigerolic acid, or CBGA, and cannabidiolic acid, CBDA, and the spike protein is the same drug target used in COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapy. A drug target is any molecule critical to the process a disease follows, meaning its disruption can thwart infection or disease progression.
“These cannabinoid acids are abundant in hemp and in many hemp extracts,” van Breemen said. “They are not controlled substances like THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and have a good safety profile in humans. And our research showed the hemp compounds were equally effective against variants of SARS-CoV-2, including variant B.1.1.7, which was first detected in the United Kingdom, and variant B.1.351, first detected in South Africa.”
This article gives no reference to the use of THC compounds in the study that they did.
The third article that I would like to bring to your attention is from the Sapphire Foundation of Great Britain. I don't have a publishing date for this article, it's not shown on their website. I assume that it's quite recent.
https://www.sapphireclinics.com/the-antiviral-potency-of-cannabinoids-against-coronavirus-sars-cov-2/
Their researchers screened 32 different cannabinoids to evaluate their potential for anti-viral activity. Of those 32 cannabinoids, 5 were subjected to further study. Here is a quote from the article.
"The five cannabinoids that were carried forward to in vitro studies were found by the computational studies to have a remarkable binding affinity to the predicted active pocket of the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 – SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. Of these five, CBD and Δ9-THC were found to have the highest affinity for binding to the active pocket of the virus.
The Results of in vitro Studies
When carried forward to in vitro studies, CBD and Δ9-THC were also found to have potent antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. Δ9-THCA, CBN, and CBDA were also showed moderate antiviral activity."
I believe that as more research is done on these cannabinoids, the picture of their anti-viral activity will become more clear. However, it does seem likely that they will continue to find more proof of the role that cannabis can take in the fight against SARS-Cov-2 and other viruses.
One thing to note is that it would seem from the research that it is the raw cannabinoid acids, not the dedecarboxylated forms derived from heating, that have the anti-viral effects. That basically means that smoking or vaping cannabis will have no effect on the virus, and extraction methods that include heat will also render the cannabinoids ineffective against viruses.
That's all I have for this post. There are other articles on the internet that are easy to find for further reading on this subject.
Thanks for stopping by to check out this post!
