Maya A. Farha, Omar M. El-Halfawy; Robert T. Gale; Craig R. MacNair; Lindsey A. Carfrae; Xiong Zhang, Nicholas G. Jentsch; Jakob Magolan; Eric D. Brown. Uncovering the hidden antibiotic potential of Cannabis. BioRxiv 833392; doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/833392
We will adhere to the Universal Principled (UP) Review guidelines proposed in:
Universal Principled Review: A Community-Driven Method to Improve Peer Review.Krummel M, Blish C, Kuhns M, Cadwell K, Oberst A, Goldrath A, Ansel KM, Chi H, O’Connell R, Wherry EJ, Pepper M; Future Immunology Consortium.Cell . 2019 Dec 12;179(7):1441-1445. doi: 10.1016/j.cell .2019.11.029.
SUMMARY : In this study, Farha, et al . investigate candidate antibiotics from Cannabis sativa . Eighteen molecules from C. sativa were screened for antibiotic activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Of these, seven compounds were identified as potential antibiotics (min. inhibitory concentration [MIC] < 2 µg/mL). The cannabinoid cannabigerol (CBG) displayed the highest efficacy against biofilms, free-living MRSA, and MRSA persister cells. The authors used a variety of approaches to investigate CBG mechanism of action, including attempts to isolate drug-resistant bacteria via spontaneous resistance, serial passaging, knockdown libraries and transposon mutant libraries. They were unable to identify a single CBG-resistant bacterium. However, they determined that CBG affects the membrane stability of Gram-positive bacteria. Finally, they found that CBG alone had no effect on Gram-negative bacteria, but displayed antibiotic activity when combined with polymyxin B. Overall, this paper shows that there are multiple metabolites produced by Cannabis sativa that have antibacterial properties and that CBG can kill bacterial cells and disrupt bacterial biofilms by interfering with stability of the inner membrane.