Can smoking weed prevent you from getting COVID?

No.

Can cannabis compounds, when combined with vaccinations, help to improve your chances of avoiding infection or prevent the virus from spreading?

According to recent research, it looks very promising!

Before we go any further here, the most important thing to note is that these studies are not clinical trials. Meaning they do not provide concrete evidence of specific dosages and how they behave in humans.

The research that we will be presenting and reviewing simply proves that clinical studies are a necessary next step; There is enough preliminary evidence to validate the mechanisms by which cannabinoids interact with the virus, so now we need to put that to the test in a human clinical trial.

Ok, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s dig into the research!

Study #1: Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV‑2 and the Emerging Variants

Researchers from the University of Oregon have successfully demonstrated CBDA and CBGA’s ability to prevent entry of the live COVID virus into the cells, concluding that these cannabis compounds have the potential to treat as well as prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2.

Again, this was not a human study. The study, published in the Journal of Natural Products, was performed in a “petri dish” so to speak. This means that these compounds can structurally and mechanically behave in a way that prevents the virus from entering the cells, but we are not yet how that works in the human body when the variables aren’t as isolated.

The researchers tested a variety of cannabinoids, but found CBDA and CBGA to be most effective at blocking cellular entry.

What’s with the A’s?

CBDA and CBGA are the acidic precursors to CBD and CBG.

The acidic forms, found naturally in cannabis flower, are converted to their active forms with heating/processing.

Most cannabis products drop that A, ensuring you are consuming “active” compounds. But, just because the acidic (A) precursors produce different effects than their active , doesn’t mean they are not valuable in their own way… and this COVID study is the perfect example of that!

This is a really important thing to note because this means that smoking cannabis is not going to provide the kind of benefit described in the study. Barely any hemp-based products do the trick either because they contain CBD or CBG, rather than CBDA or CBGA. That has already started to change after this study, but anyway…

How do these cannabinoids actually protect you?

Richard van Breemen – a researcher with Oregon State’s Global Hemp Innovation Center, College of Pharmacy and Linus Pauling Institute – found that CBDA and CBGA bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. By binding to that spike protein, the cannabinoids block a critical step in the process that the virus uses to infect people.

The spike protein is the same drug target used in COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapy. A drug target is any molecule critical to the process a disease follows, meaning its disruption can thwart infection or disease progression.

Breemen continues to describe:

“any part of the infection and replication cycle is a potential target for antiviral intervention, and the connection of the spike protein’s receptor binding domain to the human cell surface receptor ACE2 is a critical step in that cycle.

That means cell entry inhibitors, like the acids from hemp, could be used to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and also to shorten infections by preventing virus particles from infecting human cells.

[CBDA and CBGA] bind to the spike proteins so those proteins can’t bind to the ACE2 enzyme, which is abundant on the outer membrane of endothelial cells in the lungs and other organs.”

Ok, let’s break that down.

• Spike proteins are these things on the outer surface of the virus.
• ACE2 enzymes are receptor sites on surface of our cells.
• The virus gains entry into the cell by binding with ACE2 enzymes.
• CBDA and CBGA are able to attach themselves to the spike protein in a way that prevents the spike protein from being able to effectively bind to the ACE2 enzymes.

While this study is not able to conclusively establish effective dosages, the researchers are hopeful. They state that, although the concentrations needed to block the virus are high, they are “clinically achievable” due to the higher biovailability of CBDA and CBGA vs CBD and CBG.

But that’s not all…

Previous research has shown that one possible mechanism for inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 by CBD (decarbed, meaning it dropped the ‘A’) is activation of innate immune mechanisms. This is the concept that Dr. Hartridge desscribes in our blog post on CBD and the immune system – CBD affects cytokine activity and therefore affects the immune response.

This differs from CBDA and CBGA blocking intervening at the point of cell entry.

These mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, which is important because having both forms/consuming a diverse mixture of cannabinoids can go further to provide protection.

“…it remains possible that multiple cannabinoids in complex mixtures from plant extracts could act independently to inhibit SARS-CoV-2.” says Breemen.

Study #2: Cannabidiol inhibits SARS-CoV-2 replication through induction of the host ER stress and innate immune responses

This study was published on January 20, 2022 in Science Advances. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Chicago has found evidence that CBD can inhibit infection by SARS-CoV-2 in human cells and in mice.

Key findings:

• CBD acts after viral entry to block viral replication as demonstrated by loss of the viral spike protein and loss of viral RNA.
• CBD induces expression of interferon genes involved in the host innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2 but inhibits viral-induced cytokine expression that could lead to a deleterious cytokine storm.
• CBD inhibits replication of at least one other coronavirus, MHV, raising the possibility that it may inhibit other pathogenic human coronaviruses that could arise in the future.
• A metabolite of CBD, 7-OH-CBD, is an effective inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 at a concentration comparable to that in human plasma after patients took an FDA-approved CBD oral solution.
• Analysis of a cohort of patients taking FDA-approved CBD showed up to a 10-fold decreased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to a matched set of control patients.

The most interesting thing about this study is how it even surprised the researchers. They originally sought to expand upon the findings mentioned above – that CBD can affect cyotkine activity in a way that prevents the virus from advancing – but they actually found something else.

“CBD has anti-inflammatory effects, so we thought that maybe it would stop the second phase of COVID infection involving the immune system, the so-called ‘cytokine storm’. Surprisingly, it directly inhibited viral replication in lung cells” says Marsha Rosner, PhD.

How they demonstrated this effect

Researchers first treated human lung cells with a non-toxic dose of CBD for two hours before exposing the cells to SARS-CoV-2. Once exposed, the researchers monitored the cells for the virus and the viral spike protein. They found that, above a certain threshold concentration, CBD inhibited the virus’ ability to replicate.

Further investigation found that CBD had the same effect in two other types of cells and for three variants of SARS-CoV-2 in addition to the original strain.

CBD did not affect the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to enter the cell (that’s where CBDA and CBGA really shine, according to study #1). Instead, CBD was effective at blocking replication early in the infection cycle and six hours after the virus had already infected the cell.

Why is blocking replication important?

Like all viruses, SARS-CoV-2 affects the host cell by hijacking its gene expression machinery to produce more copies of itself and its viral proteins. This effect can be observed by tracking virus-induced changes in cellular RNAs.

High concentrations of CBD almost completely eradicated the expression of viral RNAs. It was a completely unexpected result. “We just wanted to know if CBD would affect the immune system,” Rosner said. “No one in their right mind would have ever thought that it blocked viral replication, but that’s what it did.”

The mechanism by which CBD blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication involves activating one of the host cell stress responses and generating interferons, an antiviral cell protein.

Building upon these findings

After witnessing this effect of CBD in tissue samples, the researchers wanted scientific data to show that CBD prevents viral replication in live animals. So, they tested the theory on mice.

The team showed pretreatment with CBD for one week prior to infection with SARS-CoV-2 suppressed infection both in the lung and the nasal passages of mice. “These results provide major support for a clinical trial of CBD in humans,” said Rosner.

Thy were also able to find real world data, outside of the lab, to support their findings.

An analysis of 1,212 patients from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative revealed that patients taking a medically prescribed oral solution of CBD for the treatment of epilepsy tested positive for COVID-19 at significantly lower rates than a sample of matched patients from similar demographic backgrounds who were not taking CBD.

All of this, according to Rosner, validates the necessity for clinical trials to truly understand where CBD and cannabinoid based therapies fit into an overall preventitive treatment plan for SARS-COV-2.

Study #3: In search of preventive strategies: novel high-CBD Cannabis sativa extracts modulate ACE2 expression in COVID-19 gateway tissues

Published November 22, 2020, this study was the first to bring the validity of CBD-based COVID treatments to the table. The findings in this study were fairly broad and very preliminary, but worth bringing up for one very important point:

The research finds that CBD can decrease the amount of ACE2 enzymes in the lungs and nasal passages.

Why is this important? If you remember from study #1, the viral spike protein binds to the ACE2 enzyme to hitch a ride into the cell and spread through the body. Less ACE2 enzymes means less opportunity for the virus to enter your system. The less opportunity there is for the spike protein to bind, the lower the chances of infection.

Check out all our products and information by clicking here.

Bringing it all together…

Here are the highlights:

1. CBDA and CBGA are able to prevent the virus from entering the cell by blocking the viral spike protein from binding to the ACE2 enzymes on the surface of our cells.
2. CBD reduces the amount of ACE2 enzymes present in our lungs and nasal passages, decreasing the opportunity for the virus to get in and spread.
3. CBD affects immune system acitivty and the ‘cytokine storm’, helping to mount a coordinated immune attack once the virus does enter the cells.
4. CBD can suppress the virus once it enters your cells by preventing viral replication.

The important disclaimers:

1. These studies simply validate the mechanisms by which cannabinoid based therapies can be effective.
2. We now need clinical trials to put these mechanisms to the test in a representative human sample set.
3. Cannabinoids are not a replacement for vaccines, but rather recommended as part of a more comprehensive approach to preventing infection from SARS-COV-2. The researchers state that these findings support the use of cannabinoids in combination with vaccincations.

For your reference:

Study #1: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.1c00946

Study #2: https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.abi6110

Study #3: https://www.aging-us.com/article/202225/pdf