- Hemp compounds could be a new line of defence against COVID-19, according to research out this week from Oregon State University.
- The implications of this research are yet to be fully determined, van Breemen said but could mean that after a person is exposed to COVID-19 they could take these compounds orally and prevent infection.
- We know about the safety at least of certain dosages of these compounds, historically.
According to new research from Oregon State University, hemp chemicals could offer a new line of defence against COVID-19 as reported by Oregonlive.
Some controversy
“Our work establishes the principle that small molecules binding to the spike protein of a coronavirus can help prevent it from infecting cells,” Richard van Breemen, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the Linus Pauling Institute and College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University, said Wednesday.
“I think there was some controversy about that,” he added.
Van Breemen, who led the study, has been applying for grants to research this possibility since 2020, he said. A comment on one rejected grant proposal, van Breemen said, read, “This principle has never been established.”
“Now it has,” he said.
The research
The research shows that similarly to the way in which antibodies bind to the spike protein on COVID-19, two extracts from hemp — cannabigerol acid, or CBGA, and cannabidiolic acid, CBDA — can also bind to it and stop it from entering cells.
“If somebody has been exposed,” he said, “you’re at a meeting with a colleague who tests positive for COVID and you’ve been exposed, what do you do?”
Today we’re advised to go home and isolate and find out later if we get sick or not.
Researchers at OSU actually invented a tool to test the hypothesis that natural compounds could bind to the spike protein in coronaviruses.
The third compound, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid or THCA, couldn’t be tested against the live virus because they were not able to get enough of it, but van Breemen believes it would also work.
Method
The method has also been used to show that a licorice compound can also bind to the protein, which also has yet to be tested in the lab.
The two compounds were tested separately and bound to different parts of the virus, van Breemen said, leading researchers to believe they would work well if used together.
He hopes now that he has proven the method works, that will change.
“That is a human experiment we don’t have to do,” he said.
We know about the safety at least of certain dosages of these compounds, historically.
“I think it’s theoretically achievable with products that exist,” Van Breemen said, “but we need to do the experiments to prove that.”
Preventing infection
“That’s also why smoking a CBDA product may not lead to much CBDA reaching the body,” he said, “because it’s going to be changed by heat.”
Third-party lab testing can show which products actually contain CBDA and CBGA.
But, van Breemen emphasized the many levels of future study he would like to do — further lab testing, tests against additional variants, pilot clinical trials for prevention and then, he hopes, trials for the treatment of active infection.
Could this research go towards preventing infection in the group of people who still refuse to get vaccinated?
“So maybe this can help keep people healthy.”
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Source: Oregonlive
