Dr. Brooke weighs in on the hype
A study published in the Journal of Natural Products in January 2022 made international headlines with an important discovery: Certain phytocannabinoids were found to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) from entering cells. Soon followed a barrage of headlines, viral videos, and late night jokes that sensationalized the study’s actual findings and creating a false equivalence, that cannabis could somehow cure or prevent COVID-19.
Behind the wild headlines are nuances that shape what the study actually finds and what it means outside the laboratory. Knowing these details is vital to understanding what precisely the new study found and what it might mean. Ethos’s Chief Medical Advisor and physician, Dr. Brooke Worster, explains what we know – or more accurately, what we still don’t know – about cannabis and COVID-19 from the results of this study.
What did the study find?
Conducted by researchers from Oregon State University and the Oregon Health & Science University, the study involved placing CBGA and CBDA in a petri dish with human epithelial cells and SARS-CoV-2 virus. CBGA and CBDA was found to have a “high affinity for spike proteins,” referring to the protruding proteins that line the outside of the virus’s cells. The presence of CBGA and CBDA influenced how much of the virus penetrated the cells in the petri dish, greatly diminishing how much of the virus entered those cells.
This is certainly an exciting discovery which builds upon prior research that concluded CBD, the active form of CBDA, may have antiviral properties. However, the journey from “potentially helpful” to clinically proven is much longer than any single study can promise.
Worster calls attention to two important distinctions between the study and real-world clinical application:
- The study was performed in a lab – not on people. What’s observed in a laboratory in a petri dish under tightly controlled conditions is a far cry from what occurs in a person’s body. Drawing a direct connection from one to the other can be a counterproductive assumption.
“What happens in a petri dish or a test tube doesn’t happen in animals, let alone in humans,” Worster said. - High amounts of specific phytocannabinoids were studied. Out of more than 100 known phytocannabinoids in cannabis sativa L plants, the study focused on the acidic precursors to CBG and CBD. THCA was also examined, and while it was found to be less effective than CBGA and CBDA, it still exhibited some potential to block SARS-CoV-2 from entering cells.
“These two phytocannabinoids are not found in high enough amounts in most cannabis products to have the same effect that they did in the lab,” Worster said.
This is “step 1 out of 100 steps”
Although the study is far from declaring or confirming that cannabis cures COVID, it’s an important discovery nonetheless that can be built upon in future research.
“If you think about research on a spectrum from 1 to 100, and you must follow that pathway to get from initial discovery to more research to human trial to FDA approval, this study is step 1,” Worster said. “There is certainly truth to it, but it’s so far from the claims being made in sensationalist headlines.”
While it may not have the implication in humans that some may think the study proved, Worster said the findings are still a very important addition to the rapidly growing body of research surrounding how precisely cannabis affects human health.
“This discovery is the beginning of an idea of a signal; much more work needs to be done before the implication in humans is fully understood,” Worster said.
The best virus protection: Get vaccinated
The scientific process is long, involved, and complicated beyond what a simplified headline can deliver. And in the case of the current global pandemic, misunderstanding the science is a dangerous proposition.
“Simply put, there is zero reason to believe that cannabis protects you from contracting COVID-19,” Worster said.
The best protection from the virus, Worster said, is to get vaccinated – a fact that is also emphasized in the first line of the study’s abstract, which says that any findings should be regarded “as a complement to vaccines.” Additional virus protections, including mask-wearing, observing social distancing guidelines, and frequent hand washing, are effective and continue to be prudent in the fight against COVID-19 as well.
“And if you feel sick, stay home,” she emphasized.
