A new real-world data study in the UK will explore how medicinal cannabis can help treat rare childhood epilepsies.
The collaboration between Drug Science and patient advocacy group MedCan Support will use technology firm Alta Flora’s Eva Research Platform to collect high-quality, longitudinal data on the effects of prescribed cannabis oil on children with epilepsy, submitted by their families through a mobile app.
Cannabis Health News reports the project, which launched on International Epilepsy Day (Monday), will run for 12 months, after which the data will be analysed by Drug Science researchers.
Drug Science CEO David Badcock said the observational study will “build on the work that our research teams have done in childhood epilepsy since cannabis was reintroduced to the British pharmacopoeia in 2018”.
He added: “We are pleased to work on this pioneering project with MedCan Support and Alta Flora and hope that the longitudinal real-world evidence that we are now able to collect will advance the case for wide access to these transformational medicines.”
MedCan Support co-founder Hannah Deacon, whose son Alfie has complex epilepsy, said: “This is a groundbreaking study, and one MedCan is proud to have been involved in.
“I know only too well the importance of new and better treatments for your child when they are suffering severe seizures.
“Finding ways to speed up research without losing quality is a vital part of the fight to make sure safe and effective medicines are made available to vulnerable children as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, US researchers have revealed a previously unknown way in which CBD reduces seizures in treatment-resistant pediatric epilepsy.
Led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the study found CBD blocked signals carried by lysophosphatidylinositol molecules (LPI). Found in neuron brain cells, LPI is thought to amplify nerve signals as part of normal function, but can be hijacked by disease to promote seizures.
Published in Neuron, the team looked at several rodent models and confirmed a previous finding that CBD blocks the ability of LPI to amplify nerve signals in the hippocampus brain region.
The new findings argue, for the first time, that LPI also weakens signals that counter seizures, further explaining the value of CBD treatment.
“Our results deepen the field’s understanding of a central seizure-inducing mechanism, with many implications for the pursuit of new treatment approaches,” said corresponding author Richard W. Tsien.
“The study also clarified not just how CBD counters seizures, but more broadly how circuits are balanced in the brain. Related imbalances are present in autism and schizophrenia, so the paper may have a broader impact,” he added.
