A new real-world data study has been launched in the United Kingdom to investigate how medicinal cannabis may help manage rare epilepsy conditions in children.
Drug Science and patient advocacy organisation MedCan Support have joined forces for the project, which will use technology company Alta Flora's Eva Research Platform to gather detailed, longitudinal data on the effects of prescribed cannabis oil in children with epilepsy. Families will submit the data directly through a mobile application.
Cannabis Health News reports the project launched on International Epilepsy Day on Monday and will run for one year, after which Drug Science researchers will analyse the collected data.
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."
Separately, US researchers have identified a previously unknown mechanism through which CBD suppresses seizures in treatment-resistant pediatric epilepsy.
The study, led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine, found that CBD blocked signals carried by lysophosphatidylinositol molecules (LPI). LPI is present in neuron brain cells and normally amplifies nerve signals, but can be co-opted by disease to trigger seizures.
Published in Neuron, the research examined several rodent models and confirmed an earlier finding that CBD blocks LPI's capacity to amplify nerve signals in the hippocampus region of the brain.
The study goes further, showing for the first time that LPI also weakens the signals that work against seizures, adding another dimension to the understanding of why CBD treatment is effective.
"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.