By Katie MacBride
When immunologist Babak Baban found out which side effects were responsible for the most severe cases of COVID-19, he immediately thought about cannabis.
Specifically, he thought about the non-psychoactive cannabinoid, cannabidiol (CBD). An associate dean of research at the University of Augusta’s Dental College of Georgia, Baban had previously researched the effect of CBD on other conditions associated with inflammation, like melanoma, chronic wounds, and Alzheimer’s.
Early in the summer of 2020, he and his team did what many other CBD researchers across the globe did: started studying the effect of CBD on cytokine storms and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), the side effects underlying so many deaths caused by coronavirus.
“We don’t have very many good treatments for viruses,” Baban tells Inverse. “Not like we do for infections.”
The strongest tool we have to combat viruses, he says, is our immune system — that’s why we call immunity from viruses “cellular immunity.”
“The immune system is very powerful, but when it gets overloaded, it can do more harm than good,” Baban says. “That’s when we need something that gives the immune system a break. And we know that’s something CBD is useful for.”
All of the researchers Inverse interviewed for this story stressed two things: first, that CBD is a very promising treatment for cytokine storms and ARDS and second, more research and clinical trials should be done before using it as a treatment in humans.