Cannabis extracts may reduce the risk of dying from Covid-19 by preventing the immune system from attacking
- Canadian researchers tested seven cannabis extracts for cytokine levels
- Cytokines are naturally produced by the immune system in response to infection
- But in patients with Covid-19, their immune system produces too many cytokines
- This so-called ‘cytokine storm’ can be fatal and is inhibited by three of the tested cannabis extracts
Some cannabis extracts can reduce the risk of death from Covid-19, preventing a patient’s defective immune system from attacking itself, the research suggests.
A ‘cytokine storm’ is a process by which the immune system gets out of control and attacks healthy tissue, rather than just the virus.
In many serious cases of Covid, this is what proves fatal, and finding a way to deaden this process has been a priority for doctors.
Now, researchers at the University of Lethbridge have investigated how extracts from Cannabis sativa plants interact with cytokines.
They found three strains that are highly effective in reducing the levels of two of the chemicals that play essential roles in the cytokine storm.
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Specific cannabis extracts can decrease the risk of dying from Covid-19, preventing the defective immune system from inflicting damage (stock)
The researchers have more than 200 cannabis variants in their collection, and have narrowed it down to seven for their study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed and has been published as a preprint in Research Square.
‘In this study, we identified three extracts that are very, very good strains; some strains identified in previous studies were also very good ‘, says Dr. Olga Kovalchuk, co-author of the study.
The strains are known only as numbers four, eight and 14.
Stopping the cytokine storm has been a priority for researchers since it was first identified in the early days of the pandemic.
It persists even when the virus has been eradicated from the body and leads to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which can be fatal.
This can also cause pulmonary fibrosis, which occurs when the lung tissue is damaged and scarred and therefore unable to function properly.
The study used professionally grown cannabis plants that were carefully extracted and applied to models, and the researchers say their findings do not mean that smoking marijuana or using CBD oil offers any protection against Covid-19 (stock)
This is a debilitating and difficult condition to treat, with only one lung transplant offering a cure for patients.
“When we start reading in the literature what drives ARDS, it is very clear that it is driven by the same molecules that are implicated in many autoinflammatory and autoimmune diseases,” said Dr. Kovalchuk.
‘One is interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the other is called tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a).’
In experiments done on a ‘3D model of human skin tissue’, which is designed to mimic the human body, the researchers found three cannabis extracts that lowered levels of IL-6 and TNF-a.
The study used professionally grown cannabis plants that were carefully extracted and applied to models and the researchers say their findings do not mean that smoking marijuana or using CBD oil offers any protection against Covid-19.
Dr. Kovalchuk and her team previously discovered that cannabis chemicals can prevent SARS-CoV-2 from infecting human cells.
The next step in the research is to obtain cannabis-based treatments in clinical trials to see if they are effective in treating critically ill patients with Covid-19 in intensive care.
Earlier this month, data were released that revealed that two anti-inflammatory drugs already used to treat arthritis are effective in containing the cytokine storm.
In one of the biggest medical discoveries in the pandemic, scientists found that the drugs may increase the chances of survival for patients already taking dexamethasone, a steroid that British scientists have found that can reduce the death of Covid’s most sick patients during the summer.
Matt Hancock also described the discovery as “another milestone in the search for a way out of this pandemic”.
The results come from the REMAP-CAP study, which involved 3,900 people with severe Covid in 15 countries. The drugs, marketed under the brand name Actemra and Kevzara, are administered intravenously for one hour.
Almost two-thirds of people in their 20s have used illegal drugs in their lifetime
Nearly two-thirds of young adults in Britain have used an illegal drug at least once in their lives, new research suggests.
This figure is 22.2 percent higher than the official data from the Crime Survey England and Wales, which informs government policy.
The authors of the new analysis, from Bristol and Public Health England, say that the illegality of illicit drug use means that measuring actual use is difficult and leads to underestimation.
Amphetamine is the least reported drug, with the new study finding that nearly one in three (32.9 percent) of 24-year-olds took the drug illegally.
This is a fourfold increase in the prevalence observed in the Criminal Survey, which records only 8.1%.
Amphetamine was defined as including MDMA, but not ecstasy, which was consumed by one in nine (11.1 percent) people in their 20s.
Cannabis was consumed by 60.5 percent of people, a significant increase from the lowest estimate of 37.3 percent, the study found.
The data also reveals that powdered cocaine was consumed by 30.8 percent of people, as opposed to 13.9 percent reported by the Criminal Survey.
The use of crack and cocaine is the same in both surveys, in only 1% of the population, while hallucinogens increase 11.3%, to 18.1% of people in the Bristol study.
Opioid use was statistically higher and was taken by one in 20 people, while sedatives or tranquilizers were used by 11.6 percent of young adults, an increase of 8.1 percent.
In the photo, the percentage of respondents in the Bristol study that looks at how many people took illicit drugs at some point in their lives