High-purity CBD may help block COVID-19 replication, a new study suggests

By Nicolas Jose Rodriguez

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Chicago has found evidence that cannabidiol, or CBD, can inhibit infection by the COVID-19 virus in human cells and in mice.

However, they warn that CBD’s COVID-blocking effects only come from a highly pure, specially formulated dose taken in specific situations. The results of the study do not suggest that consuming commercially available products with added CBD, which vary in strength and quality, can prevent COVID-19, UChicago News reported.

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The study, published Jan. 20 in Science Advances, found that CBD had a significant negative association with positive COVID tests in a national sample of medical records from patients taking the FDA-approved drug to treat epilepsy.

Clinical trials should now be conducted to determine if CBD could potentially be used as a preventative or early treatment for COVID-19.

“CBD has anti-inflammatory effects, so we thought maybe it would stop the second phase of COVID infection involving the immune system, called the ‘cytokine storm,'” said Marsha Rosner, Charles B. Huggins Professor at Ben May Department of Cancer Research and senior author of the study. “Surprisingly, it directly inhibited viral replication in lung cells.”

The researchers first treated human lung cells with CBD for two hours before exposing the cells to the COVID virus and monitoring them for the virus and viral spike protein. They found that above a certain threshold concentration, CBD inhibited the ability of the virus to replicate. Further research found that CBD had the same effect on two other cell types and three variants of the COVID virus besides the original strain.

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“A clinical trial is needed to determine if CBD is truly effective in preventing or suppressing SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Rosner said. The research team emphasized that CBD’s COVID-blocking effects are strictly limited to ultra-pure, high concentrations of CBD. Closely related cannabinoids did not have the same effects, and combining CBD with equal amounts of THC actually reduced the potency of CBD.

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“We currently caution against the use of non-medical formulations, including edibles, inhalants, or topical agents, as preventive or treatment therapy,” the researchers added.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.