Archive for the ‘MRSA’ Category

The previous story here featured important information relevant to your life, especially if you’re ill. But I guarantee more of you will read this one.

Pot may be our best weapon in the fight against bacterial infection.

Yes, spleef, mary jane, reefer, wacky tobacky, the stuff that made Cheech & Chong famous. It could save your life.

Scientists working in Italy and England have found that all five cannabinoids — the chemicals found in marijuana — “showed potent activity against a variety of MRSA strains of current clinical relevance.”

In other words, there’s something in there that works against the nastiest of bacteria, those resistant to all current antibiotics, the skin-eating kind, but we’re not quite sure what it is.

A press release on the finding says the substances could also provide a more “environmentally-friendly way” to add anti-bacterial properties to soaps and cosmetics.

Mr. Bubble, now with that extra-special something that gets your kids right to sleep. After some heavy snacking.

Of course, we assume, such marijuana would have to be “de-natured,” rendered harmless or drug free, before it could be used. But what if the same chemicals that get you high are the chemicals that cure?

Here is where science will meet politics. After 10 years we are no closer to dealing with the issue of medical marijuana than we were before. Activists are still being tossed into jail despite some states’ attempts to regulate it. (Alaska is one.)

By and large politicians have succeeded in scaring patients away from marijuana as a way to deal with the pain of cancer. Can they also succeed when the active ingredient becomes our best hope against super-germs?

I wouldn’t bet against them.

The mounting uses of medicinal marijuana got higher after researchers found compounds in marijuana can combat certain strands of bacteria.

Despite these findings, many government organizations still prohibit the use of marijuana in research.

A recent study by Italian and U.K. scientists, which will be published in the Sept. Journal of Natural Products shows that cannabinoids, compounds found in marijuana, could be a potential answer to drug resistant strains of bacteria.

Researchers isolated five cannabinoids and tested them for their effectiveness against the bacteria present in drug resistant staph infections, like methicillin-resistant Staphyloccocus aurera, the bacteria responsible for difficult to treat staph infections. All five cannabinoids and synthetic cannabinoids proved successful against the bacteria, according to the study.

Center for Disease Control spokeswoman Christine Pearson said there are no numbers detailing how many MRSA infections occur in the U.S., but 12 million people visit their doctors for skin infections every year.

“The most recent study said that 85 percent of MRSA outbreaks are at hospitals or other health facilities,” said Pearson.

Pearson said she could not comment on the CDC’s stance on marijuana research or the European study that found cannabinoids to be successful at fighting MRSA.

However, David Rosenbloom, director of Join Together, a Boston University School of Public Health program devoted to “responsible” drug and alcohol policy, said he was not surprised by the effectiveness of cannabinoids on MRSA because a number of beneficial medicines come from plants.

Rosenbloom said the politics of marijuana use are interfering with the growth of substantial research.

“Neither the pro or con forces want reliable resources because they’re both convinced that their side is right,” Rosenbloom said.

Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Bruce Mirken said it is even difficult for researchers to get permission to use marijuana in their research.

“Unfortunately, in the U.S. medicinal marijuana has become a political problem,” Mirken said. “The federal government is deeply invested in demonizing marijuana and seems to be only paying lip service to any scientists that want to do serious research.”

The University of Mississippi is currently the only university in the U.S. allowed to grow marijuana for research. Any scientists who want to do research with marijuana must apply to the DEA for approval, Mirken said.

University of Massachusetts-Amherst researcher and professor Lyle Craker applied to the Drug Enforcement Agency to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes in in 2001 and was denied permission in 2004. Craker said it was difficult to do real research about potential medicinal benefits of marijuana because the government is committed to telling the public that marijuana is bad.

“In my opinion, we need to explore every avenue we have to protect our health and cure illness,” Craker said.

he list of medical uses for marijuana (Cannabis Sativa) continues to grow. The Journal of Natural Products recently published a paper outlining the newly isolated antibiotic effects of the class of molecules known as cannabanoids. This group includes the non-psychoactive cannabichromene, cannabigerol, and cannabidiol but also includes the well-known and definitely psychotropic tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Researchers believe that the powerful antibiotic effects of cannabanoids can be enlisted in the increasingly difficult fight against MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) and other ‘superbugs’ that have evolved resistances to most modern antibiotics. MRSA is perhaps the best known of these superbugs, often running rampant in hospitals, with estimates of up to 1.2 million hospital patients becoming infected and possibly over 100,000 patients dying each year in the United States due to lack of effective medicines against them. The known effectiveness of cannabanoids and the fact that they have not been used before, and therefore no bacteria has yet developed a resistance to them, could prove to be a very valuable tool in the arms race against these constantly changing bacterial strains.

Image: Current Global News

In some ways the notion of cannabis having antibiotic effects is counterintuitive. This is because it has been proven that the act of smoking marijuana actually increases vulnerability to infections. This vulnerability however seems to be a result of inhaling marijuana smoke or even smoke in general and likely has little to do with the presence or absence of cannabanoids.

Contrastingly, cannabis sativa itself, when not smoked, has been known since the 1950s to have strong antibacterial properties. However, as the technology of looking into how molecules are structured and how they interact was in its infancy at the time, the researchers were unable to determine which marijuana compounds were actually causing the antibacterial effects. As the social and research climates started to grow increasingly hostile to the investigation of black-listed substances in the US and around the world, antibiotic cannabis studies were soon shelved and ignored until they were finally picked up again fairly recently by modern science.

Image: Chemung County

With all of the advances in chemical analysis made since the fifties, the new batch of scientists studying cannabis related antibiotics were now able to pinpoint the basic backbone structure that is common to all cannabanoids, to be the active component in killing off bacteria. Now that the bio-active section of the cannabanoid molecules has been identified, researchers and drug makers are busy developing and testing antibiotic drugs as well as considering potential uses for cannabanoids in various soaps and cleaning products. At present they are focusing their efforts on the derivatives of the non-psychoactive cannabanoids. This is presumably because the US FDA, and other governing bodies world-wide, might have a hard time with people getting high in order to cure a bacterial infection; not to mention getting high by just washing their hands.

Cannabis Science, Inc., Dr. Robert Melamede, PhD., Director and Chief Science Officer, reported to the Board on the current state of research into the use of natural plant cannabinoids to reduce the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus (MRSA), and the prospects for development of topical whole-cannabis treatments.

According to studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and by the Center for Disease Control in 2007, MRSA is responsible for more than 18,500 hospital-stay related deaths each year, and increased direct healthcare costs of as much as $9.7 billion.

Dr. Melamede stated, “Research into use of whole cannabis extracts and multi-cannabinoid compounds has provided the scientific rationale for medical marijuana’s efficacy in treating some of the most troubling diseases mankind now faces, including infectious diseases such as the flu and HIV, autoimmune diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and diabetes, neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, stroke and brain injury, as well as numerous forms of cancer. One common element of these diseases is that patients often suffer extended hospital stays, risking development of various Staphyloccus infections including MRSA. A topical, whole-cannabis treatment for these infections is a functional complement to our cannabis extract-based lozenge.”

Investigators at Italy’s Universita del Piemonte Orientale and Britain’s University of London, School of Pharmacy reported in the Journal of Natural Products that five cannabinoids – THC, CBD, CBG, CBC, and CBN – “showed potent antibacterial activity” and “exceptional” antibacterial activity against two epidemic MRSA occurring in UK hospitals. The authors concluded: “Although the use of cannabinoids as systemic antibacterial agents awaits rigorous clinical trials, … their topical application to reduce skin colonization by MRSA seems promising. … Cannabis sativa … represents an interesting source of antibacterial agents to address the problem of multidrug resistance in MRSA and other pathogenic bacteria.”

ept. 4, 2008 — Chemicals in marijuana may be useful in fighting MRSA, a kind of staph bacterium that is resistant to certain antibiotics.

Researchers in Italy and the U.K. tested five major marijuana chemicals called cannabinoids on different strains of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). All five showed germ-killing activity against the MRSA strains in lab tests. Some synthetic cannabinoids also showed germ-killing capability. The scientists note the cannabinoids kill bacteria in a different way than traditional antibiotics, meaning they might be able to bypass bacterial resistance.

At least two of the cannabinoids don’t have mood-altering effects, so there could be a way to use these substances without creating the high of marijuana.

MRSA, like other staph infections, can be spread through casual physical contact or through contaminated objects. It is commonly spread from the hands of someone who has it. This could be in a health care setting, though there have also been high-profile cases of community-acquired MRSA.

It is becoming more common for healthy people to get MRSA, which is often spread between people who have close contact with one another, such as members of a sports team. Symptoms often include skin infections, such as boils. MRSA can become serious, particularly for people who are weak or ill.

In the study, published in the Journal of Natural Products, researchers call for further study of the antibacterial uses of marijuana. There are “currently considerable challenges with the treatment of infections caused by strains of clinically relevant bacteria that show multi-drug resistance,” the researchers write. New antibacterials are urgently needed, but only one new class of antibacterial has been introduced in the last 30 years. “Plants are still a substantially untapped source of antimicrobial agents,” the researchers conclude.