New research suggests that THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana, could help prevent the HIV virus from spreading throughout the body. When the study’s authors first presented their “groundbreaking” findings at a conference in 2011, they were excited about the potential implications. But they also knew that, thanks to the U.S. government’s restrictions on research related to marijuana, they probably won’t be able to test it out on humans.
Led by Dr. Patricia Molina, a team of Louisiana State University researchers arrived at theirconclusions after studying a group of monkeys infected with an animal form of the HIV virus. They administered a daily dose of cannabis to the primates for 17 months, and eventually saw a dramatic decrease in the damage to the monkeys’ stomach tissue — as well as an increased population of normal cells around that damaged tissue.
Since the stomach is one of the most common areas in the body for HIV to spread, the results signal that cannabis could help prevent HIV from infecting and killing off healthy cells.
“It adds to the picture and it builds a little bit more information around the potential mechanisms that might be playing a role in the modulation of the infection,” Molinaexplained to Leaf Science.
