“Since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic, our understanding of the underlying disease mechanism and factors associated with the disease severity has dramatically increased. A recent study investigated the relationship between substance use disorders (SUD) and the risk of severe COVID-19 in the United States and concluded that the risk of hospitalization and death due to COVID-19 is directly correlated with substance abuse, including opioid use disorder (OUD) and cannabis use disorder (CUD). While we found this analysis fascinating, we believe this observation may be biased due to comorbidities (such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease) confounding the direct effect of SUD on severe COVID-19 illness. To answer this question, we sought to investigate the causal relationship between substance abuse and medication-taking history (as a proxy trait for comorbidities) with the risk of COVID-19 adverse outcomes.
Our Mendelian randomization analysis confirms the causal relationship between OUD and severe COVID-19 illness but suggests an inverse causal effect for cannabinoids.
Considering that COVID-19 mortality is largely attributed to disturbed immune regulation, the possible modulatory impact of cannabinoids in alleviating cytokine storms merits further investigation.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36583016/
“In conclusion, our MR analysis confirms the causal relationship between opioids and severe COVID-19 illness. However, our MR analysis questions the validity of the causal relationship between CUD and COVID-19 severe illness. A recent study showed that treatment with cannabis compounds significantly reduces cytokine secretion in lung epithelial cells and, therefore, may be useful in alleviating severe symptoms in COVID-19 patients. The fact that a great deal of COVID-19 mortality is attributed to immune dysregulation and cytokine storm, the possible modulatory impact of cannabinoids merits further investigation. Besides, it is shown that cannabidiol (CBD) blocks viral replication in lung epithelial cells through the up-regulation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response and interferon signaling pathways. Intriguingly, medical history of oral CBD use was associated with a reduced COVID-19 test-positivity rate.”
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2022.1070428/full