Research: CBD has been able to kill “antibiotic-resistant” bacteria
"Bacteria", such as those that have developed resistance to commonly used antibiotics, pose a threat to modern medicine in the fight against infections. New research shows that cannabidiol (CBD) may have the potential to be used as a new type of antibiotic to which the bacteria are not immune.With evolution, bacteria have become immune to certain types of antibiotics being used against infections - a fact that is a major threat to the future of medicine and worries researchers around the world.
Such a bacterium, which has developed resistance to several different types of antibiotics, is known as a "Super Bug", and the concern is that one day bacteria will develop to be resistant to all known antibiotics so that they cannot be treated.
Scientists from Australia who have tried to find possible solutions to the problem believe that cannabidiol (CBD), the major non-doping cannabinoid in cannabis plant, may in the future be the basis for a new antibiotic drug - one that can cope with the bacteria called super bug.
In a new study, researchers looked at the effects of CBD on several different strains of bacteria, including staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that causes significant morbidity and mortality in hospitals, streptococcus pneumonia causing pneumonia, and enterococcus pecalis that cause life-threatening infections in people with a immune system.
The study, whose findings were first presented at the American Microbiology Association's annual conference last week and are still unpublished, found that CBD killed all bacterial strains tested in the laboratory, including those considered particularly resistant to the types of antibiotics currently available.
Furthermore, the CBD was able to "overcome the evolution" of the bacteria and lead to the fact that despite the exposure of the bacteria to the CBD for 20 days, they failed to develop resistance to it, as stated in contrast to some of the antibiotics used.
Even when testing the model in preliminary experiments in mice, it was found that topical CBD treatment was able to cure bacterial skin infection. However, it has not yet been proven whether this procedure also works in a systemic way in humans.
"It manages to work on bacteria that have developed immunity to other antibiotics, but we're still not sure how that happens," explains research director Mark Blaskovich, a senior researcher at the Center for Super-bug Solutions for Australia.
"We were able to show that it works locally, on the skin, and if it also seems to work on systemic infections such as pneumonia and complicated tissue infections, which must be given orally or by injection, it will be very useful," he added. "A very preliminary study has not shown that it works in such situations."
Blaskowitz has criticized the obstacles the law places on researchers seeking to investigate the effects of cannabis or its components: “The most challenging part of the study was obtaining the appropriate permits to conduct CBD research from the Queensland government (one of the states in Australia),” he says.
Despite promising results, Blaskovich is the first to emphasize that this is a preliminary study that has not yet been tested on humans, so no recommendation to replace existing antibiotic therapy should be considered.
"Most of the results we presented were obtained in test tubes so there is still a lot of work to do to see if it is effective in treating human infections," he said. "It may be dangerous to try to treat serious infection with cannabidiol instead of conventional antibiotics."
Dr. Andrew Edwards, a professor of molecular microbiology at Imperial College London, said that "the antibacterial properties of cannabidiol have not received the proper evaluation before, and its effectiveness against antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains as demonstrated in the study is impressive."
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