A new drug from purified marijuana molecule can treat pediatric epilepsy?

Scientists have worked out a new drug from purified marijuana molecule for pediatric epilepsy treatment.

Dravet syndrome or Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of Infancy (SMEI) doesn’t respond to any currently available treatment. While 60 percent of epilepsy cases do respond, 40 percent, including those linked to Dravet syndrome, do not.

Children, having this disease, have hundreds of seizures a day, which can also be life-threatening.

Angus Wilfong, a pediatric neurologist at Texas Children’s Hospital says, the disease is genetic and currently has no cure. The doctor is the principal investigator for the trial of a new drug.

Six-year-old Izaiah Ruiz was part of the double-blind dosage-range trial. At first his tonic clonic seizures from about four a month to only two, but he still has small seizures daily. However, the boy was able to spend Christmas at home and not at the hospital.

The drug is controversial due to its makeup: It is comprised of purified CBD, one of at least 80 known molecules of cannabis, or marijuana. Wilfong said there’s no scientific evidence from a formal clinical trial that proves marijuana can effectively treat epilepsy. However, scientists have observed that it can have an effect. They believe that CBD somehow calms the brain activity that causes seizures.

It should be noted that CBD made a breakthrough in this sphere in 2014, when a Colorado girl, who was also suffering from Dravet syndrome, saw her seizures decrease from hundreds daily to just two or three a month after taking CBD. The medicine has been named “Charlotte’s Web” after the little girl, Charlotte Figi.

However, the drug continues to undergo testing, and doctors are still working to understand its effectiveness.

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