[ad_1]
By Jehran Naidoo 
1 hour ago
DURBAN – By their very nature, all drugs can be considered toxic to humans. A little too much and one could overdose.
This could be why we use drugs in such minute amounts, as four to five milligrams per dose.
Almost a year after the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists and health experts around the world have been stumped trying to figure out an exact method to fight the new coronavirus.
With the second wave of infections among us, we are beginning to see South Africa’s healthcare system facing unprecedented strain, largely due to the influx of Covid-19 patients.
The virus, which reportedly started in Wuhan, China, has forced medical experts to search unlikely locations for possible treatment for Covid-19.
Earlier this month, a team of researchers from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in the US recommended a look at how cannabis-derived CBD could be used as a potential treatment.
The authors, Siddappa N. Byrareddy and Mahesh Mohan, gave a detailed account in the December issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity on how the anti-inflammatory bodies in cannabis can reduce inflammation of the lungs, a frequent symptom among patients with Covid- 19.
“Recent reports have suggested that acute infection is associated with the cytokine superstorm, which contributes to symptoms of fever, cough, muscle pain and, in severe cases, bilateral interstitial pneumonia,” the report said.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a compound from the cannabis plant.
The report said that CBD can prevent the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cytokines are regulators of the host’s response to infection, immune responses, inflammation, and trauma.
The team also found that CBD reduced the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in a murine (laboratory mouse) model of chronic asthma, a condition that affects the airways of the lungs.
One of the main concerns of health experts around the world is to create a vaccine that is suitable to fight the virus and has minimal or minimal side effects on the human body.
Another study, which looked at the use of tocilizumab, a drug used primarily for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, found that it had harmful side effects.
Although tocilizumab was successful in reducing inflammation in the lungs, it produced negative side effects, such as inflammation of the pancreas, and posed a risk of coronary heart disease.
“CBD has a high margin of safety and is well tolerated pharmacologically even after treatments of up to 1500 mg / day for two weeks in both animals and humans, suggesting its feasibility to reduce Sars- induced lung inflammation / pathology. CoV-2 and disease. severity, ”the report explains.
The team also noted that CBD could help reduce the mental effects caused by the Covid-19 virus, such as stress, anxiety, and cerebrovascular disease.
In South Africa, last Friday, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, Co-Chair of the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on Coronavirus, Professor Tulio de Oliveira, Director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequence Platform (Krisp) at the University KwaZulu-Natal and Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said a new variant of the virus has been identified.
According to Karim, the new Sars-CoV-2 or 501.v2 variant is more dangerous than the previously observed model of the virus.
African News Agency (ANA); Edited by Yaron Blecher
[ad_2]
