Cannabis extracts can reduce the risk of dying from Covid-19 by stopping the self-attacking immune system
- Canadian researchers test seven cannabis extracts at cytokine levels
- Cytokines are naturally produced by the immune system in response to infection
- But in Covid-19 patients, their immune system makes too many cytokines
- This so-called ‘cytokine storm’ can be fatal and is inhibited by three of the proven cannabis extracts
Some cannabis extracts may reduce the risk of dying from Covid-19 by preventing a patient’s immune system from attacking itself, according to research.
A ‘cytokine storm’ is a process by which the immune system derails and attacks healthy tissue instead of just the virus.
In very severe Covid cases, it is fatal, and finding a way to curb this process has been a priority for physicians.
Now, researchers at the University of Lethbridge are investigating how extracts from Cannabis sativa plants interact with cytokines.
They found three strains that are very effective in reducing the levels of two chemicals that play an integral role in the cytokine storm.
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Specific cannabis extracts may reduce the risk of dying from Covid-19 by preventing damage to the damaged immune system (stock)
The researchers have more than 200 variants of cannabis in their collection, and it has been reduced to seven for their study, which has not yet been reviewed by peers and is being published as a pre-print on Research Square.
‘In this study, we identified three extracts that are very, very good strains; some strains identified in previous studies were also quite good, ‘says Dr Olga Kovalchuk, co-author of the study.
The tribes are known only as number four, eight and 14.
Stopping the cytokine storm has been a priority for researchers since it was identified in the early days of the pandemic.
It continues even when the virus is out of the body, leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which can be fatal.
It can also cause lung fibrosis, that is when lung tissue is damaged and scarred and therefore unable to function properly.
The study used cannabis plants that were professionally grown and carefully extracted and applied to models. According to the researchers, this means that smoking marijuana or using moderate oil offers no protection against Covid-19 (stock).
It is an debilitating condition that is difficult to treat, with only one lung transplant providing a cure for patients.
“When we started reading in the literature about what drives ARDS, it is very clear that it is driven by the same molecules that are involved in many auto-inflammatory and autoimmune diseases,” says Dr. Kovalchuk.
“One of them is interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the other is called tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α).”
In experiments performed on a ‘3D human skin tissue model’, designed to mimic the human body, the researchers found three cannabis extracts that lowered IL-6 and TNF-α levels.
The study used professionally grown cannabis plants that were carefully extracted and applied to models, and the researchers believe their findings do not mean that marijuana smoking or the use of moderate oil offers any protection against Covid-19.
Dr. Kovalchuk and her team had earlier found that cannabis chemicals could potentially prevent SARS-CoV-2 from infecting human cells.
The next step for the research is to get cannabis-based treatments into clinical trials to see if it is effective in treating serious Covid-19 patients in intensive care.
Earlier this month, data were released that found that two anti-inflammatory drugs already used to treat arthritis could effectively stop the cytokine storm.
In one of the biggest medical breakthroughs of the pandemic, scientists found that the drugs could increase the chances of survival for patients already taking dexamethasone, a steroid that British scientists have discovered could kill death in some Covid patients. .
Matt Hancock also described the discovery as ‘another important development to find a way out of this pandemic’.
The results come from the REMAP-CAP trial that involved 3900 people with severe Covid in 15 countries. The drugs marketed under the brand names Actemra and Kevzara are administered by intravenous drip for one hour.
Nearly two-thirds of people in their mid-20s have used illegal drugs in their lifetime
Nearly two-thirds of young adults in Britain have used an illegal drug at least once in their lives, new research suggests.
This figure is 22.2 percent higher than the official data from the Crime Survey England and Wales which informs the government’s policy.
Authors of the new analysis, from Bristol and Public Health England, say the illegality of illegal drug use means that measuring the correct use is difficult and that it can be underestimated.
Amphetamine is the drug most commonly reported, and the new study found that nearly one in three (32.9 percent) of 24-year-olds used the drug illegally.
This is a fourfold increase in the incidence seen in the Crime Survey, which achieves only 8.1 percent.
Amphetamine was defined as MDMA, but not as ecstasy, which was taken by one in nine (11.1 percent) people in their mid-20s.
The study found that cannabis was taken by 60.5 percent of people, significantly higher than the lower estimate of 37.3 percent.
Data also show that powder cocaine was taken by 30.8 percent of the people, as opposed to the figure of 13.9 percent put forward by the Crime Survey.
The use of crack cocaine is the same for both surveys, only one percent of the population, while hallucinogens in the Bristol study increased by 11.3 percent to 18.1 percent of the people.
Opioid use was statistically higher and was taken by one in 20 people, while sedatives or tranquilizers were used by 11.6 percent of young adults, with 8.1 percent.
In the photo, the percentage of respondents to the Bristol study looked at how many people had taken illicit drugs at some point in their lives.