Cannabis: Study Shows That Cannabidiol (CDB) Could Help In Fight Against Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
Source: Cannabis Jun 06, 2020 4 years, 6 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 11 minutes ago
Cannabis: The world is facing an impending health crisis a bacterial resistance to antibiotics is growing at a fast rate. With fewer antibiotics available to treat resistant bacterial infections, the possibility of entering a pre-antibiotic era is becoming a fast reality.
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Currently alternative strategies are being explored and helper compounds are attracting attention.
Helper compounds are non-antibiotic compounds with the capability of enhancing the efficacy of antibiotics.
Interestingly enough one such helper compound has been identified to be cannabidiol (CBD); a cannabinoid from the cannabis plant.
A new research by medical experts from the University of Southern Denmark, has published a scientific study proving the effect of CBD.
The research is lead by Dr Janne Kudsk Klitgaard who is also the corresponding author while the first author is Ph.D. student Dr Claes Søndergaard Wassmann. The research findings is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-60952-0
The researchers found that when combined with CBD, the antibiotics were observed to be more powerful in effect than when treating bacteria with antibiotics alone. Hence it was seen that in order to kill a certain number of bacteria, less antibiotics were needed.
CBD was used in the study to enhance the effect of the antibiotic bacitracin against Staphylococcus aureus bacteria; a major human pathogen that frequently causes community and hospital acquired disease.
To date, multidrug-resistant clones of this pathogen have spread globally. In some countries, treatments of bacterial infections with these resistant bacteria are difficult and the problem is projected to be an ever-larger problem in the future.
The medical researchers say that the combination of CBD and antibiotics may be a novel treatment of infections with antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Significantly, three things happened with the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, when the researchers treated them with the combination in their study:
-It was seen that the bacteria could no longer divide normally.
-Also the expression of certain key genes (cell division and autolysis genes) in the bacteria was lowered.
-It was observed that the bacterial membrane became unstable.
The medical researchers say that overuse of antibiotics is the main cause of antibiotic resistance.
However if we combine an antibiotic with a helper compound, that enhances the effect of the antibiotic, needing less antibiotic to achieve the same effect.
Dr Janne Kudsk Klitgaard said that this may contribute to the development of fewer resistant bacteria.
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