Researchers believe they have found that cannabis can be used to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria which spells good news for the treatment of MRSA, meningitis, gonorrhoea and other antibiotic-resistant illnesses.
In a study conducted the University of Queensland, scientists found that cannabidiol could allow the development of new strains of antibiotics which can kill bacteria that is currently resistant to most available treatments.
Gonorrhoea for example infects nearly 100 million people per year and is able to develop a resistance to antibiotics which makes its cure impossible.
This study showed that cannabidiol has an ability to kill previously resistant bacteria which promises exciting medical innovation.
Mark Blaskovich, lead author of the study said, “This is the first time CBD has been shown to kill some types of Gram-negative bacteria. These bacteria have an extra outer membrane, an additional line of defence that makes it harder for antibiotics to penetrate”
He added, “Cannabidiol showed a low tendency to cause resistance in bacteria even when we sped up potential development by increasing concentrations of the antibiotic during ‘treatment’. We think that cannabidiol kills bacteria by bursting their outer cell membranes, but we don’t know yet exactly how it does that, and need to do further research.’
“We think we can engineer a different version of CBD that will be able to have some systemic activity. We want something that doesn’t break down in the body as quickly as CBD does. There’s definitely potential there that CBD could be a prototypical representative of a new class of antibiotics.”
With CBD seeing a boom in the medical market at the tail end of the last decade, it is no surprise that research into the cannabis plant continues.
For more Cannabis-related news, Amsterdam is set to ban tourists from visiting their infamous weed cafes.