CBDa CBGa for COVID 19-Coronavirus SARS CoV-2
We all know that CBD has many benefits, but can CBDa or CBGa for COVID be beneficial as well? By now you may have heard about the new cannabinoids for COVID study that came out from the University of Oregon that states that CBD can help prevent COVID and its variants from attaching to human cells. The question is does CBDa or CBGa for COVID work, and how does it work. We’ll go through the CBDa CBGa for COVID research below.
CBDa CBGa For SARS CoV 2 Study
As detailed in a study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Natural Products by researchers from Oregon State Universiy and Oregon Health & Sciences University, the scientists were looking for a biological compound that could bind with the spike protein of the SARS CoV 2 vieus, which causes COVID-19.
The team incubated the live virus with hemp compounds, as well as a control, and after 24 hours injected them into human cells. They found that cells that had been treated with CBDa and CBGa lacked SARS CoV 2 RNA. They performed the same procedure on live alpha and beta variants-first detected in the UK and South Africa, respectively- and found that compunds had the same effect in both cases. They express optimism that these compounds can be effective against other coronavirus variants as well.
CBDa and CBGa for COVID Findings
The researchers findings point to the hemp compounds as “virus neutrilizing”, capable of blocking the entry of coronavirus in high concentrations that the researchers note are “high but might be clinically achievable:. They recommend oral administration of the compounds-meaning adequate use of hemp compounds for COVID-19 prevention would likely come in the form of a pill or liquid.
Summary
As a complement to vaccines, small-molecule therapeutic agents are needed to treat or prevent infections by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants, which cause COVID-19.
Affinity selection-mass spectrometry was used for the discovery of botanical ligands to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Cannabinoid acids from hemp (Cannabis sativa) were found to be allosteric (meaning denoting the alteration of the activity of a protein through the binding of an effector molecule at a specific site) as well as orthosteric ligands (meaning describing the primary, unmodulated binding site on a receptor) with micromolar affinity (binding benefits) for the spike protein.
In follow-up virus neutralization assays, cannabigerolic acid (CBGa) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDa) prevented infection of human epithelial cells by a pseudovirus expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and prevented entry of live SARS-CoV-2 into cells.
Importantly, cannabigerolic acid (CBGa) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDa) were equally effective against the SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant B.1.1.7 and the beta variant B.1.351.