Mac researchers reveal antibiotic potential of cannabis
‘It’s a practical lead in an exciting new field,’ professor says
Anecdotally, cannabis has long been thought to have curative powers.
But is it possible it could one day be developed as an antibiotic — and even fight drug-resistant superbugs?
The answer is yes, according to research by McMaster University scientists.
A team of researchers has identified a compound of the plant that fights not only bacteria, but also the superbug known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), that can cause potentially deadly staph infections.
“It is a practical lead in an exciting new field,” said Eric Brown, a professor of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at McMaster, who was the lead author of the study that has been published in the journal American Chemical Society Infectious Diseases.
The cannabis plant contains more than 100 chemical compounds, or cannabinoids. McMaster’s team tested 18 commercially available cannabinoids, including CBD.
They found the strongest bacteria fighter was called CBG, or cannabigerol.
“Everyone knows CBD, but CBG was more potent,” said Brown. “It turns out it’s active against the membrane of bacteria; it kills antibiotic resistant bacteria, and can really go after MRSA.”
Through research on mice in a laboratory, experiments showed CBG prevent MRSA bacteria from forming “biofilms,” which are micro-organisms that can grow on teeth, and develop antibiotic-resistant infection on sites of the body from catheters or hip and knee replacement implants.
“It gives me some hope that a discovery like this might have legs,” Brown said.
But there is a significant leap from discovering the antibacterial powers of CBG, to the prospect of developing it as an antibiotic drug. Testing showed that CBG packed enough toxicity that it could destroy red blood cells, and not just virulent bacteria — although that is not an unusual find, when it comes to developing antibiotics, Brown suggested.
“It’s something we will have to work on.”
Developing a new antibiotic is both time consuming and rare: it takes about 10 years to both discover and develop one, he said. It’s been nearly 30 years since the last discovery of a new antibiotic.
The reason is that there has been little financial incentive for drug companies to invest in developing antibiotics, when patients typically take them for brief periods of time.