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Early research suggesting that a popular non-psychoactive compound  derived from marijuana might help prevent or treat Covid-19 warrants further investigation in rigorous clinical trials, researchers say.

Several recent laboratory studies of cannabidiol, or CBD , have shown promising results, attracting media attention.

However, many other potential COVID treatments that showed promise in test  tube s, from hydroxychloroquine to various drugs used to treat cancer and other diseases, ultimately failed to show benefit for COVID-19 patients once studied in clinical trials.

Marsha Rosner of the University of Chicago led a team that found CBD  appeared to help curb SARS-CoV-2 in infected cells in laboratory experiments. “Our findings do not say this will work in patients. Our findings make a strong case for a clinical trial,” she said.

Using small doses of highly purified CBD  that approximate what patients receive in an oral drug already approved for severe epilepsy, Rosner and colleagues found that CBD  did not keep the coronavirus  from infecting cells in test  tube s.

Rather, it acted soon after the virus entered the cells, blocking it from making copies of itself in part via effects on the inflammatory protein interferon. They found similar effects in infected mice, according to a report in Science Advances https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abi6110.

When they looked at a group of adults with severe epilepsy, the researchers found those who were taking the approved CBD  drug had lower rates of COVID-19. But a backward look at a small number of patients does not yield conclusive information. Only randomized clinical trials can do that, Rosner said.

“I know my message is not something people want to hear,” she said.

Small doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the marijuana ingredient that causes the high – cannabidiolic acid (CBD A), cannabidivarin (CBD V), cannabichromene (CBC), and cannabigerol (CBG) did not keep the virus out of cells or prevent it from replicating, her team found.

“Not only did THC not work, but combining it with CBD  prevented CBD  from working,” Rosner said.

NO COVID CURES AT CBD  DISPENSARY

A separate team reported recently in the Journal of Natural Products that high doses of CBG and CBD A do prevent the coronavirus  from breaking into cells.

Richard van Breemen from Oregon State University told Reuters that the doses his team test ed were non-toxic to cells. It is not clear yet that similarly high doses would be safe for humans, his team said.

“You want the lowest possible effective dose,” Rosner said, because of potential side effects as the drug is filtered through the liver.

The CBD  her team test ed was more than 98% pure, while purity in commercial products is far lower. “People should not run out and get CBD  from their favorite dispensary,” she said.

CBD  products have become widely available in many forms and have been touted – often without proof from clinical trials – as treatments for pain and other ailments.

Small CBD  trials in humans with COVID-19 are underway.

In one completed study, researchers in Brazil randomly assigned 105 patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 to receive CBD  or a placebo for 14 days along with standard care. The CBD  had no apparent effect, according to an October report in Cannabis  and Cannabinoid Research.

In a proof-of-concept study at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, researchers are randomly assigning patients with mild COVID to receive CBD  or a placebo.

An early-stage trial at Rabin Medical Center, also in Israel, aims to test  the effect of CBD  in severely or critically ill patients. However, study leader Dr. Moshe Yeshurun told Reuters that accruing participants has been difficult because the current Omicron-driven coronavirus  wave “consists mostly of patients with mild to moderate disease.”

Rosner’s team is exploring the possibility of a clinical trial that would likely focus on asymptomatic or mild cases of COVID. Meanwhile, she is concerned that media reports overstating the potential of cannabinoids will lead people to self-medicate with CBD , stop using masks and avoid vaccines.

“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.”

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Bill Berkrot)

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