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jrknothead
News Junkie
Joined: Aug 04, 2007
Age: 42
Posts: 1110
Location: Tampa Bay, Florida USA
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 Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:28 am Post subject: A New MRSA Defense -Marijuana Extracts |
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A New MRSA Defense - Marijuana extracts kill antibiotic-resistant MRSA without a high.
| Quote: | Substances harvested from cannabis plants could soon outshine conventional antibiotics in the escalating battle against drug-resistant bacteria. The compounds, called cannabinoids, appear to be unaffected by the mechanism that superbugs like MRSA use to evade existing antibiotics. Scientists from Italy and the United Kingdom, who published their research in the Journal of Natural Products last month, say that cannabis-based creams could also be developed to treat persistent skin infections.
Cannabis has long been known to have antibacterial properties and was studied in the 1950s as a treatment for tuberculosis and other diseases. But research into using cannabis as an antibiotic has been limited by poor knowledge of the plant's active ingredients and by the controversy surrounding its use as a recreational drug.
Now Giovanni Appendino of the Piemonte Orientale University, in Italy, and Simon Gibbons of the School of Pharmacy at the University of London, U.K., have revisited the antibiotic power of marijuana by systematically testing different cannabinoids' ability to kill MRSA.
MRSA, short for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a bacterium that can cause difficult-to-treat infections since it does not respond to many antibiotics. Many healthy people carry S. aureus on their skin, but problems arise when multi-drug-resistant strains infect people with weak immune systems through an open wound. In the worst cases, the bug spreads throughout the body, causing a life-threatening infection.
To make matters worse, resistance to antibiotics is rapidly increasing, and some strains are now even immune to vancomycin, a powerful antibiotic that is normally used only as a last resort when other drugs fail.
But when Appendino, Gibbons, and their colleagues applied extracts from five major cannabinoids to bacterial cultures of six strains of MRSA, they discovered that the cannabinoids were as effective at killing the bugs as vancomycin and other antibiotics.
"The cannabinoids even showed exceptional activity against the MRSA strain that makes extra amounts of the proteins that give the bugs resistance against many antibiotics," says Gibbons. These proteins, he explains, allow the bacteria to "hoover up unwanted things from inside the cell and spit them out again."
Conveniently, of the five cannabinoids tested by the researchers, the two most effective ones also happen to be nonpsychoactive, meaning that they cannot cause a high. "What this means is, we could use fiber hemp plants that have no use as recreational drugs to cheaply and easily produce potent antibiotics," says Appendino.
In an attempt to discover how the cannabinoids kill MRSA, the team manipulated several chemical groups within the compounds. Most of the changes did not affect the antibiotic activity at all, and those that did seemed to influence only how well the cannabinoid is taken up by the bacterial cells.
"Everything points towards these compounds having been evolved by the plants as antimicrobial defenses that specifically target bacterial cells," says Gibbons. "But the actual mechanism by which they kill the bugs is still a mystery. We've tested whether the cannabinoids affect common antibiotic targets like fatty acid synthesis or the [DNA-bending enzyme] DNA gyrase, but they don't. I really cannot hazard a guess how they do it, but their high potency as antibiotics suggests there must be a very specific mechanism."
Appendino and Gibbons say that cannabinoids could quickly be developed as treatments for skin infections, provided the nonpsychoactive varieties are used. "The most practical application of cannabinoids would be as topical agents to treat ulcers and wounds in a hospital environment, decreasing the burden of antibiotics," says Appendino.
Whether the cannabinoids could also be delivered in the form of an injection or in pills is less clear, the pair says, because they may be inactivated by blood serum.
Frank Bowling of the University of Manchester, who has had success treating MRSA-infected wounds with maggots, says that "any alternative treatment that removes MRSA from the wound and prevents it from spreading into the body is fantastic and preferable to using antibiotics that have strong side effects and against which resistance is already developing." He cautions, however, that the researchers still need to show that the cannabinoids are safe to use.
This is not something that Appendino is too concerned about: "The topical use of cannabis preparations has a long tradition in European medicine, and no allergies have been reported."
Mark Rogerson of GW Pharmaceuticals, a U.K.-based company that develops cannabinoid-based drugs to treat severe pain caused by multiple sclerosis and cancer, says that the discovery that cannabinoids kill MRSA "really underlines the potentially great diversity of medical applications that cannabis-based medicine can have. You can almost think of the cannabis plant as a mini pharma industry in its own right." But Rogerson says that it is unlikely that existing cannabis-based medicines could be used to treat MRSA because the exact effect will depend on the correct combination and dosage of cannabinoids.
Meanwhile, Appendino and Gibbons hope that antibacterial effectiveness could also make cannabinoids suitable preservatives for cosmetics and toiletries. "The golden standards of preservatives are parabens and chlorinated phenols," says Appendino, but these compounds do not degrade well in the environment and are strongly suspected to be hormonal modifiers. He also argues that, since all major cannabinoids are similarly effective, complete purification of a single compound isn't necessary. So semipurified cannabinoid mixtures extracted from nonpsychoactive plants could make a cheap and easy alternative to conventional preservatives.
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Wow... this is great news, both for medical marijuana proponents and for hospital staff fighting the resistant MRSA strains... if this really works, it will be very difficult for the drug warriors to continue to oppose theraputic marijuana...
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Never let your schooling interfere with your education. - Samuel Clemens |
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PilotPirx
Deinonychus
Joined: May 09, 2008
Age: 38
Posts: 300
Location: Amsterdam, NL
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| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:55 am Post subject: |
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Cool. Next time I have a flu or cold I'll smoke a joint...
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Postperson
The Daughter of Indifference
Joined: Jul 10, 2004
Age: 51
Posts: 2904
Location: Uz
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| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:15 am Post subject: |
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| mmm interesting. Fortunately most of the anti-marijauna brigade seem to be dying out. Every time they ask politicians whether they've smoked MJ now, the answer is yes. Generational change. |
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ShawnWilliam
Phoenix
Joined: Aug 27, 2008
Posts: 1462
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| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Hemp is a miracle crop.. too bad they persist with a fake war on drugs. If it were truly a war on drugs, then pharmacuedicals would be on the list as well.. alcohol is proof that it's not the 'high' its self that is wrong. drunk/high.. not a lot of difference other than quality of high. |
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theQuail
Snowy Owl
Joined: Dec 10, 2007
Posts: 137
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| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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 For some reason I laughed at the article title. That's pretty good news.
Still, the US government is not going to allow legal marijuana use, medical or not, for a long time. (Unless what I've read about them conducting drug raids on medical marijuana growers/sellers in California is really biased.) Silly War on Drugs... I always wonder what's so terrible about regulating and taxing some of these illegal drugs. |
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ShawnWilliam
Phoenix
Joined: Aug 27, 2008
Posts: 1462
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| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:50 pm Post subject: |
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| The law fails in this case.. as well as many cases. Hemp is a miracle plant, and should be grown globally for the better of our world.. better/cheaper paper, better clothing, better oil, quickly grown, better medicine.. sheesh.. alll the uses.. and 0 deaths?? Gee I wonder if anyone has died from let's say.. cough syrup? or aspirin?.. even one death puts those drugs at a higher risk level. |
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Cyanide
Leader of Shadaloo
Joined: Sep 25, 2006
Posts: 1405
Location: OR
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| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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| PilotPirx wrote: | | Cool. Next time I have a flu or cold I'll smoke a joint... |
You'll still be out of luck, because those are viruses! |
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SPCDavid
Raven
Joined: Sep 09, 2008
Posts: 115
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| Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:06 am Post subject: |
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| Cyanide wrote: | | PilotPirx wrote: | | Cool. Next time I have a flu or cold I'll smoke a joint... |
You'll still be out of luck, because those are viruses! |
Yea, MRSA doesn't present with cold or flu symptoms, not that I wouldn't just smoke a joint anyway. |
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LeKiwi
Phoenix
Joined: Nov 27, 2007
Posts: 2589
Location: The murky waters of my mind...
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| Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:43 pm Post subject: |
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Manuka honey has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to treat MRSA. They introduced dressings made with it in a number of UK hospitals earlier this year for that reason.
Cheap, nutritious, tasty, and one of nature's most potent medicines... manuka each day keeps the doctor away (and the sweet tooth at bay!)
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josh_dl_allen
Emu Egg
Joined: Oct 14, 2008
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:05 pm Post subject: Mrsa isnt a flu but it is a pnemonia. |
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PilotPirx wrote:
Cool. Next time I have a flu or cold I'll smoke a joint...
You'll still be out of luck, because those are viruses!
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Most likely you will need to smoke that joint. Most cases of deaths in the usa from the flu- half was linked to mrsa.
mrsa can infect the lungs causing killer pnemonia linked with the flu.
Mrsa can be air borne, or on any surface other than brass for a long period of time.... even weeks.
I am eager to know what part of the hemp is effective agaisnt mrsa... I smoke it but id like to get rid of this mrsa in the process haha. I have been told that mrsa is incurable by 2 major doctors and the society will not use antibiotics to treat u. they will wait untill it enters your bloodstream then they will use the vanco.
Ever have that feeling that ur throat is itching and u cant stop gasping for air? thats the first stage of pnemonia so light up that joint!  |
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philosopherBoi
Phoenix
Joined: Aug 07, 2008
Age: 20
Posts: 1019
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 1:04 am Post subject: |
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| LeKiwi wrote: | Manuka honey has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to treat MRSA. They introduced dressings made with it in a number of UK hospitals earlier this year for that reason.
Cheap, nutritious, tasty, and one of nature's most potent medicines... manuka each day keeps the doctor away (and the sweet tooth at bay!) |
However how are you going to use this honey against MRSA if it is in the body? Perhaps its in your colon or nose putting honey in those areas would be a disaster. |
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SpiceWolf
Deinonychus
Joined: Jul 01, 2008
Posts: 334
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| Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| LeKiwi wrote: | Manuka honey has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to treat MRSA. They introduced dressings made with it in a number of UK hospitals earlier this year for that reason.
Cheap, nutritious, tasty, and one of nature's most potent medicines... manuka each day keeps the doctor away (and the sweet tooth at bay!) |
Medical Honeys are supurb for treating things like infected ulcers or surgical wounds.
But they are limited in the types of infections they can be used for.
L. |
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Silver_Meteor
Asperger Accountant
Joined: Jul 11, 2007
Posts: 1144
Location: North Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA
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| Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 2:15 am Post subject: Re: A New MRSA Defense -Marijuana Extracts |
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| jrknothead wrote: | A New MRSA Defense - Marijuana extracts kill antibiotic-resistant MRSA without a high.
| Quote: | Substances harvested from cannabis plants could soon outshine conventional antibiotics in the escalating battle against drug-resistant bacteria. The compounds, called cannabinoids, appear to be unaffected by the mechanism that superbugs like MRSA use to evade existing antibiotics. Scientists from Italy and the United Kingdom, who published their research in the Journal of Natural Products last month, say that cannabis-based creams could also be developed to treat persistent skin infections.
Cannabis has long been known to have antibacterial properties and was studied in the 1950s as a treatment for tuberculosis and other diseases. But research into using cannabis as an antibiotic has been limited by poor knowledge of the plant's active ingredients and by the controversy surrounding its use as a recreational drug.
Now Giovanni Appendino of the Piemonte Orientale University, in Italy, and Simon Gibbons of the School of Pharmacy at the University of London, U.K., have revisited the antibiotic power of marijuana by systematically testing different cannabinoids' ability to kill MRSA.
MRSA, short for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a bacterium that can cause difficult-to-treat infections since it does not respond to many antibiotics. Many healthy people carry S. aureus on their skin, but problems arise when multi-drug-resistant strains infect people with weak immune systems through an open wound. In the worst cases, the bug spreads throughout the body, causing a life-threatening infection.
To make matters worse, resistance to antibiotics is rapidly increasing, and some strains are now even immune to vancomycin, a powerful antibiotic that is normally used only as a last resort when other drugs fail.
But when Appendino, Gibbons, and their colleagues applied extracts from five major cannabinoids to bacterial cultures of six strains of MRSA, they discovered that the cannabinoids were as effective at killing the bugs as vancomycin and other antibiotics.
"The cannabinoids even showed exceptional activity against the MRSA strain that makes extra amounts of the proteins that give the bugs resistance against many antibiotics," says Gibbons. These proteins, he explains, allow the bacteria to "hoover up unwanted things from inside the cell and spit them out again."
Conveniently, of the five cannabinoids tested by the researchers, the two most effective ones also happen to be nonpsychoactive, meaning that they cannot cause a high. "What this means is, we could use fiber hemp plants that have no use as recreational drugs to cheaply and easily produce potent antibiotics," says Appendino.
In an attempt to discover how the cannabinoids kill MRSA, the team manipulated several chemical groups within the compounds. Most of the changes did not affect the antibiotic activity at all, and those that did seemed to influence only how well the cannabinoid is taken up by the bacterial cells.
"Everything points towards these compounds having been evolved by the plants as antimicrobial defenses that specifically target bacterial cells," says Gibbons. "But the actual mechanism by which they kill the bugs is still a mystery. We've tested whether the cannabinoids affect common antibiotic targets like fatty acid synthesis or the [DNA-bending enzyme] DNA gyrase, but they don't. I really cannot hazard a guess how they do it, but their high potency as antibiotics suggests there must be a very specific mechanism."
Appendino and Gibbons say that cannabinoids could quickly be developed as treatments for skin infections, provided the nonpsychoactive varieties are used. "The most practical application of cannabinoids would be as topical agents to treat ulcers and wounds in a hospital environment, decreasing the burden of antibiotics," says Appendino.
Whether the cannabinoids could also be delivered in the form of an injection or in pills is less clear, the pair says, because they may be inactivated by blood serum.
Frank Bowling of the University of Manchester, who has had success treating MRSA-infected wounds with maggots, says that "any alternative treatment that removes MRSA from the wound and prevents it from spreading into the body is fantastic and preferable to using antibiotics that have strong side effects and against which resistance is already developing." He cautions, however, that the researchers still need to show that the cannabinoids are safe to use.
This is not something that Appendino is too concerned about: "The topical use of cannabis preparations has a long tradition in European medicine, and no allergies have been reported."
Mark Rogerson of GW Pharmaceuticals, a U.K.-based company that develops cannabinoid-based drugs to treat severe pain caused by multiple sclerosis and cancer, says that the discovery that cannabinoids kill MRSA "really underlines the potentially great diversity of medical applications that cannabis-based medicine can have. You can almost think of the cannabis plant as a mini pharma industry in its own right." But Rogerson says that it is unlikely that existing cannabis-based medicines could be used to treat MRSA because the exact effect will depend on the correct combination and dosage of cannabinoids.
Meanwhile, Appendino and Gibbons hope that antibacterial effectiveness could also make cannabinoids suitable preservatives for cosmetics and toiletries. "The golden standards of preservatives are parabens and chlorinated phenols," says Appendino, but these compounds do not degrade well in the environment and are strongly suspected to be hormonal modifiers. He also argues that, since all major cannabinoids are similarly effective, complete purification of a single compound isn't necessary. So semipurified cannabinoid mixtures extracted from nonpsychoactive plants could make a cheap and easy alternative to conventional preservatives.
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Wow... this is great news, both for medical marijuana proponents and for hospital staff fighting the resistant MRSA strains... if this really works, it will be very difficult for the drug warriors to continue to oppose theraputic marijuana... |
Hold on for a minute Jrknothead: The cannabinoids that were the most effective were the ones that were non-psychoactive. Furthermore, the substances were not smoked, they were applied as a cream.
There also seems to be some confusion between marijuana and hemp. Permitting farmers to grow Industrial Hemp for commercial production has nothing to do with growing marijuana. Industrial Hemp has negligible amounts of THC (0.3% or less according to EU regulations).
http://www.votehemp.com/different_varieties.html
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