Notice Board

The Suthern Alberta Council for Public Affairs (SACPA) presents a session with the University of Lethbridge's Dr. Olga Kovalchuk as she discusses the medical efficacy of cannabis treatments for COVID-19.

Medical cannabis against COVID-19 - from research to clinical use

Date and time:        Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 10 a.m.

YouTube Live link:    https://youtu.be/sj60GmfFht4

Studies have found that enzymes in cannabis may be able to treat COVID-19. Researchers at the University of Lethbridge recently released results from a study that shows the benefits of CBD as an aid in blocking the cells that enter the body from the novel coronavirus. The study is a partnership between the university, Pathway, which works to develop cannabis therapies to treat specific diseases, and cannabinoid-based oral health company Swysh Inc.

The researchers at U of L conducted a study using artificial 3D models of oral, airway and intestinal tissues coupled with a limited sample of high CBD Cannabis sativa extracts, modulate ACE2 gene expression and ACE2 protein levels. The results indicated hemp extracts high in CBD may help block proteins that provide a “gateway” for COVID-19 to enter host cells. The speaker will elaborate.

Speaker:                   Dr. Olga Kovalchuk

Dr. Kovalchuk received her BMed (Honors, 1992) and MD (Stomatology, 1994) degrees at the Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University in Ukraine. In 1994, she began a career at the Medical University and the Chernobyl Research Centre studying consequences of the Chernobyl accident, and in 1998, received a PhD (Medical Genetics). Dr. Kovalchuk conducted extensive postdoctoral training at the Friedrich Miescher Institute and in Novartis/Syngenta (Switzerland). Currently, Dr. Kovalchuk is a professor and a Board of Governors’ Research Chair in Epigenetics of Health and Diseases at the University of Lethbridge.

In 2008-2018, she held the Canadian Institutes for Health Research – Institute of Gender and Health (CIHR-IGH) Chairs in Gender and Health, and in Gender, Work and Health. Dr. Kovalchuk is an internationally-renowned leader and expert in epigenetics and epigenomics of health and disease, environmental epigenomics, and radiation biology and oncology. She is studying mechanisms of disease, epigenetics, novel precision medicine approaches and novel cannabis-based disease therapies. She is a co-founder of PathwayRx, a research and development medical cannabis company developing personalized approaches for cannabis-based treatment of cancer and age-related diseases.

In order to ask questions of our speaker in the chat feature of YouTube, you must have a YouTube account and be signed in. Please do so well ahead of the scheduled start time, so you’ll be ready. Go the YouTube Live link provided in this session flyer and on the top right of your browser click the “sign in” button. If you have Google or Gmail accounts, they can be used to sign in. If you don’t, click “Create Account” and follow along. Once you are signed in, you can return to the live stream and use the chat feature to ask your questions of the speaker. Remember you can only participate in the chat feature while we are livestreaming. Link to SACPA’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFUQ5mUHv1gfmMFVr8d9dNA

For further information about the Southern Alberta Counciul for Public Affairs, visit the SACPA website.