Mark Megahan
It seems that a few of the right molecules from some garden ganja could wipe out a lot more than your motivation and short term memory, as “a secret weapon in the fight against COVID-19.” Cannabis is such a great natural remedy for so many different ailments that consumers aren’t the slightest bit surprised to learn happy weed might just block the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, too.
Cannabis might kill Covid
Researchers at Oregon State University sparked the smoking hot study and it quickly passed around the cannabis community like a well rolled doobie. On the campus at Corvallis, they’ve determined that compounds contained in marijuana show “the ability to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from entering human cells.”
They didn’t want be accused of being high when they wrote it, so worked with the “decaf” hemp variety. Either way, they started with good ole Cannabis sativa.
Hemp, they write, makes natural compounds which show “the ability to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from entering human cells.” They note you don’t have to toke to gain the benefits.
The specific compounds can be isolated from the male plant “hemp” variety along with CBD oils. The beneficial components are already commonly available in “products as make-up, lotions, dietary supplements and food.”
The two particular substances which caught the attention of virus researchers are a pair of “cannabinoid acids,” cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid. Both, they claim, “were equally effective against the SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant B.1.1.7 and the beta variant B.1.351” of Covid.
Lead researcher Richard van Breemen, emphasized that these particular “cannabinoid acids are abundant in hemp and in many hemp extracts. They are not controlled substances like THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. These compounds can be taken orally and have a long history of safe use in humans.”
Alpha and Beta varieties
The thing that made the study authors really happy is that the “compounds have been found to be effective in preventing both the alpha and beta variants from infecting the body.”
They’re still testing what they do to Delta and Omicron. As medical efforts stand now, there are “only three COVID-19 vaccines that are authorized or approved for use in the U.S. to prevent the coronavirus.” You have a choice from “the two-dose mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.” Plus you need boosters.
Cannabis preparations are promising as an effective alternative to the Covid vaccine and provide a brand new option for those hesitant to accept the vaccine. In fancy scientific words, “Cannabinoid acids from hemp (Cannabis sativa) were found to be allosteric as well as orthosteric ligands with micromolar affinity for the spike protein.”
In follow-up virus neutralization assays, “cannabigerolic acid and cannabidiolic acid prevented infection of human epithelial cells by a pseudovirus expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and prevented entry of live SARS-CoV-2 into cells.”
The whole idea boils down to “cell entry inhibitors could be used to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection as well as to shorten the course of COVID-19 infections by preventing virus particles from infecting human cells.”
As they show with digarams, “Ligands with high affinity to the receptor binding domain on the S1 protein have the potential to function as entry inhibitors and prevent infection of human cells by SARS-CoV-2.”
