You ’ve credibly hear all about cannabinoids like cannabidiol ( CBD ) andtetrahydrocannabinol ( THC ) , both of which have become the nidus of intense scientific debate . Yet cannabis also contains an array of less - knowncannabinoids , three of which have now been singled out for their ability to treat epileptic seizures in mouse .
Recently , cannabis - based medicinal drug have become progressively pop astreatments for epilepsy , with CBD often administered in conjunction with anti - seizure drug such as clobazam . This attack has been found to heighten the efficaciousness of the drug , and the author of a new study in theBritish Journal of Pharmacologywanted to see if other cannabinoids have a similar event .
The researchers administered a range of different cannabinoids to mouse that had been genetically altered to develop an fauna model of Dravet syndrome , which is an intractable form of childhood epilepsy . result indicated that numerous minor cannabinoids , known as cannabidivarin ( CBDV ) , cannabidivarinic Lucy in the sky with diamonds ( CBDVA ) , cannabigerolic acid ( CBGA ) and cannabigerovarinic acid ( CBGVA ) all displayed anticonvulsant place .
Of these , CBGA was the most effective , found to provide even cracking protection than CBD against sealed seizures . Specifically , CBGA was highly strong against heat - induce capture , capable of producing the same benefits asCBDat much lower doses .
Conversely , however , gamey doses of CBGA were in reality found to evoke spontaneous seizure , highlighting the complexness of the interactions between cannabis and epilepsy .
“ We found that CBGA was more potent than CBD in reducing seizures trigger by a febrile event in a computer mouse model of Dravet syndrome , ” explain lead author Dr Lyndsey Anderson in astatement . “ Although higher doses of CBGA also had proconvulsant issue on other seizure type foreground a restriction of this cannabis constituent . We also found CBGA to touch many epilepsy - relevant drug targets . ”
These findings are intriguing for a telephone number of intellect beyond the fact that CBGA had never previously been identified as a treatment for epilepsy . The fact that it is a cannabinoid acid , for example , is important as these compound are rarely present in ganja - based medications .
In bare-assed marijuana , most cannabinoids subsist as acids , but become decarboxylated when the plant is heated . In this way , tetrahydrocannabinolic acid ( THCA ) is converted into THC , and cannabidiolic acid ( CBDA ) becomes CBD when cannabis is fume , vaped , fix , or otherwise processed . Rarely do people consume un - decarboxylated cannabinoid acids , and this study hints at the possibility that we may therefore be miss a trick .
Furthermore , CBGA is in fact the precursor to most other cannabinoid acids in cannabis , let in THCA and CBDA . For this rationality , study writer Jonathan Arnold has described CBGA as “ the mother of all cannabinoids ” .
Overall , these results upraise a turn of challenging questions about which cannabinoids should be direct as treatments for epilepsy . The determination also give credence to the so - foretell “ entourage effect ” theory , which holds that the interactions between all of the component in ganja potentiate its therapeutic effect , and that is therefore better to use the whole plant rather than its isolated constituents .
“ We have assessed the cannabinoids one by one and now we are search what happens when you put them all back together , ” say Anderson . “ There remains a real opening that all these individual anticonvulsant cannabinoids might puzzle out advantageously when combined . ”
