A new study has identified cannabis compounds as a therapeutic agent to prevent coronavirus infections by blocking the virus from entering human cells.

Acids extracted from cannabis plants, cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), were identified as having the potential to combat the virus. 

In the study, conducted by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon State University, they found these compounds could bind to spike proteins found on the virus and blocked a step the pathogen uses to infect people.

The research shows that similarly to the way in which antibodies bind to the spike protein on COVID-19, the two cannabis compounds— CBGA and CBDA — can also bind to it and stop it from entering cells.

The implications of this research are yet to be fully determined, but it could mean that after a person is exposed to COVID-19 they could take these compounds orally and prevent an infection.

“These compounds can be taken orally and have a long history of safe use in humans. They have the potential to prevent as well as treat infection by SARS-CoV-2,” said Richard van Breemen, a researcher with Oregon State’s Global Hemp Innovation Center.

“If somebody has been exposed, you’re at a meeting with a colleague who tests positive for COVID and you’ve been exposed, what do you do? Today we’re advised to go home and isolate and find out later if we get sick or not. We need an intervention then. This would be the perfect intervention.”

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