According to a pre-print study — meaning it has not been peer-reviewed yet — CBD and its metabolite 7-OH-CBD blocks out SARS-CoV-2 from replicating in the patient’s epithelial lung cells. Normally, the virus uses its spike protein to latch on to healthy cells and cut their way in. From there, SARS-CoV-2 can hijack the cell functions to make more of the virus.
A team from the University of Chicago discovered that CBD inhibits gene expression in virus cells, including the RNA coding for the spike protein.
In the new study, researchers treated A549 human lung carcinoma cells which express the ACE-2 gene with CBD. This is the gene receptor to that the SARS-CoV-2 spike attaches to in patients.
Once treated, scientists exposed these cells to the virus. After 48 hours, the team discovered that CBD-treated A549 cells blocked the virus’s ability to multiply. Further study revealed that CBD helped to reverse nearly all of the gene expression changes SARS-CoV-2 causes in the host cells. Researchers believe these results show CBD may help stop the “cytokine storm” COVID patients suffer during severe infections. This hyper inflammation takes place when the patient’s own immune system goes into overdrive and attacks healthy cells. “CBD has the potential not only to act as an antiviral agent at early stages of infection but also to protect the host against an overactive immune system at later stages,” the team explains.