CBD May Be Helpful with.. Gonorrhoea?
CBD, Cannabidiol is a substance extracted from hemp and cannabis plants that have been used to treat health conditions like anxiety and epilepsy. For the first time, CBD, also known as synthetic cannabinoid, has been shown to kill the bacteria responsible for diseases like legionnaires, meningitis, and gonorrhea.
How do we know this, and who did the studies on this potential breakthrough?
Let’s find out.
A Collab Between Botanix Pharma and UofQ
The research is an initiative or collaboration between Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which is a firm that is working on CBD for various skin conditions, and the University of Queensland. It led to the first new class of antibiotics for resistant bacteria in sixty years.
Associate professor Blaskovich of the UQ Institute for Molecular Bioscience stated that cannabis consists of non-psychoactive components that can kill and penetrate a wide range of bacteria. While that is a startling statement in itself, when firms can target it to aspects such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae, responsible for causing gonorrhea, it can certainly be a gamechanger overall.
He said that people should never try to treat their infections at the present moment with CBD. Further, he did note that it could be problematic to treat a severe condition with CBD. He did note that it could be dangerous.
He further stated that this is the first time when cannabinoids have been shown to kill some gram-negative bacteria. The extra outer membrane of these bacteria, which is an extra line of defense, makes antibiotics efforts quite challenging.
Effective Against Gram-Positive Bacteria
The study further explains and shows that CBD was quite effective for Gram-positive bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as ‘golden staph,’ or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
This research was executed by applying CBD on the samples of pig skin infected with various bacteria. It has been shown that CBD has a low tendency to cause bacteria resistance even if the concentration was increased for the antibiotic during treatment.
The research team found that chemical analogs made by changing the molecular structure of CBD were also active against the bacteria.
Possible Progress?
This is quite exciting just because of the nature of these infections. Did you know that there have been no new molecular antibiotics classes found and approved since the year 1960?
So now the research team can work on new CBD analogs and enhanced properties.
According to the research, the Executive Chairman and the President of Botanix, Vince Ippolito, stated that there has been a vast potential for effective treatment development to fight the global threat of antibiotic resistance.
He has congratulated Dr. Blaskovich and his team for the wonderful research and declared that his company is now commercializing viable antimicrobial treatments that will reach more patients in the years to come.
WHO Has Opinions on These Diseases
WHO, the World Health Organization, stated that N.gonorrhoeae is a high-priority pathogen because of its growing existing antibiotics resistance. It notes that this leads to the threat of super gonorrhea.
The fact that cannabinoids showed no propensity to induce resistance is promising and prompts the researchers to recommend a more effective treatment for these issues.
The U.S Food and Drug Administration has approved CBD primarily to treat conditions like seizures linked with severe or rare forms of epilepsy.
