In a new study, researchers found that one way CBD appears to reduce the “cytokine storm” that damages the lungs and kills many patients with COVID-19 is by enabling an increase in levels of a natural peptide called apelin.
It is known to reduce inflammation and whose levels are dramatically reduced in the face of this storm.
The researchers previously had found CBD could improve oxygen levels and reduce inflammation as well as physical lung damage in their laboratory model of deadly adult respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS.
Now they showed that apelin levels go way down with the viral infection and that CBD quickly helps normalize those levels along with lung function.
The research was conducted by a team at Dental College of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
Apelin is a pervasive peptide made by cells in the heart, lung, brain, fat tissue and blood, and is an important regulator in bringing both blood pressure and inflammation down.
When our blood pressure gets high, for example, apelin levels should go up in the right place, like endothelial cells that line blood vessels, to help bring it down.
Apelin should do the same to help normalize the significant increases in inflammation in the lungs and related breathing difficulties associated with ARDS.
The team reported this summer in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research that treatment with CBD reduced excessive lung inflammation, enabling improvements in lung function, healthier oxygen levels, and repair of some of the structural damage to the lungs that are classic with ARDS.
The investigators said then more work was needed, including finding how CBD produced the significant changes as well as human trials before it should be included as part of a treatment regimen for COVID-19.
Now they have correlated those improvements with the regulation of apelin.
While they don’t attribute all CBD’s benefits to apelin, they say the peptide clearly has an important role in this scenario.
The new finding was their first in learning more about how CBD produces the beneficial effects they saw in their model of ARDS.
The next steps include a better understanding of the interaction between CBD, apelin, and the novel coronavirus including why apelin goes down in the face of the virus and why CBD brings it up.
One author of the study is Dr. Babak Baban, DCG immunologist and associate dean for research.
The study is published in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.
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