However, several other prospective COVID therapies that showed promise in test tubes, such as hydroxychloroquine and numerous cancer and other disease-fighting medications, failed to demonstrate benefit in COVID-19 patients after being investigated in human trials.
In laboratory research, Marsha Rosner of the University of Chicago led a team that discovered CBD appeared to help reduce SARS-CoV-2 in infected cells. "Our findings do not indicate that this will be effective in patients. Our findings support the need for a clinical trial "she stated.
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Rosner and colleagues discovered that using small doses of highly purified CBD, similar to what patients would receive in an oral medicine already approved for severe epilepsy, CBD could not prevent the coronavirus from infecting cells in test tubes.
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Rather, it functioned shortly after the virus entered the cells, preventing it from replicating, in part through effects on the inflammatory protein interferon. According to a paper published in Science Advances, they discovered similar results in infected mice.
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The researchers discovered that those who were taking the approved CBD medicine had decreased rates of COVID-19 in a cohort of adults with severe epilepsy. However, a retrospective analysis of a small number of patients did not generate conclusive results. Only randomized clinical studies, according to Rosner, can do this.
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"I know my message is not something people want to hear," she said.
Her team discovered that small amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), cannabidivarin (CBDV), cannabichromene (CBC), and cannabigerol (CBG) did not keep the virus out of cells or prevent it from multiplying.
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"Not only did THC not work but combining it with CBD prevented CBD from working," Rosner said. A separate study published in the Journal of Natural Products recently found that large dosages of CBG and CBDA inhibit the coronavirus from infecting cells.
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According to Richard van Breemen of Oregon State University, the amounts his team tested were not harmful to cells. According to his research, it is still unclear if similarly high doses would be safe in humans.
"You want the lowest possible effective dose," Because of the drug's potential negative effects as it passes through the liver, Rosner explained.
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Her team found that the CBD they examined was more than 98 percent pure, but commercial CBD is far less pure. "People should not run out and get CBD from their favorite dispensary," she said.
CBD products have been widely available in a variety of forms and have been promoted as pain and other ailment therapies despite the lack of evidence from clinical trials. COVID-19 is being used in small CBD trials in people. Researchers in Brazil randomly allocated 105 patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 to receive CBD or a placebo for 14 days in addition to usual therapy in one completed study. According to a paper published in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research in October, CBD showed no effect.
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Researchers at Sheba Medical Center in Israel are randomly allocating individuals with mild COVID to receive CBD or a placebo in a proof-of-concept trial.
The effect of CBD in seriously or critically ill patients is being tested in an early-stage experiment at Rabin Medical Center in Israel. Dr. Moshe Yeshurun, the study's head, told Reuters that recruiting volunteers has been tough because the current Omicron-driven coronavirus wave "consists primarily of individuals with mild to moderate disease."
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Rosner's team is looking into the feasibility of conducting a clinical trial focused on asymptomatic or mild cases of COVID. Meanwhile, she is concerned that exaggerated media stories about cannabis' potential would induce individuals to self-medicate with CBD, abandon masks, and avoid immunizations.
"We would love to be able to say specifically" that a certain dose of cannabinoids is helpful, she said, but at this point, "vaccine-induced antibodies and antibody drugs are much more effective at blocking infection."
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