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Discovery of a substance found in cannabis that suppresses epileptic seizures.

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The non-narcotic substance CBD, found in cannabis biomass, suppresses epileptic seizures by blocking the action of the LPI molecule responsible for triggering excitatory signals at nerve endings.

American and British molecular biologists have shown that the non-narcotic substance CBD, found in cannabis biomass, suppresses epileptic seizures by blocking the action of the LPI molecule, which is responsible for triggering excitatory signals at nerve endings. This was announced on Monday, February 13, by the press service of the New York University School of Medicine.

The press service quotes the words of New York University professor Richard Kian: “The results of our experiments have deepened neurophysiologists’ understanding of how epileptic seizures occur in different cells. He added that the imbalance is characteristic not only for epilepsy, but also for other diseases, including autism and schizophrenia.

According to the World Health Organization, about 50 million people in the world suffer from various forms of epilepsy. In about 70% of cases, doctors manage to suppress the disease with medication, but sometimes epilepsy cannot be cured, which forces them to resort to more drastic measures, including implanting electrodes or destroying the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe brain where the epileptic focus is located.

In recent years, doctors have been actively discussing the possibility of using cannabis extracts to treat severe forms of epilepsy that are not amenable to the action of existing drugs. Experiments on animals and volunteers have shown that the non-narcotic substance CBD, present in cannabis biomass, is able to suppress epileptic activity, but the mechanisms of its action were still unknown to scientists.

Professor Qian and his colleagues first obtained such information as part of a series of experiments on mice and rats in which scientists artificially induced epileptic seizures and tried to suppress them with cannabis extract. During these experiments, the researchers tracked changes in the functioning of neurons in the hippocampus, a memory center in the mammalian brain that plays an important role in the development of seizures.

The scientists explained that CBD molecules act on synapses, which are the nerve endings of certain types of neurons, causing them to produce significantly less excitatory signals. Subsequent experiments showed that this was due to the cannabis extract binding to the LPI molecule, which is thought to be responsible for triggering excitatory signals at the synapses.

The researchers confirmed this hypothesis by conducting a new series of experiments in which they injected large amounts of the LPI molecule into synapses and also stopped the GPR55 neuroreceptor that recognizes this molecule. Experiments showed that excess LPI increased seizures, while turning off the GPR55 receptor or suppressing LPI with cannabis extract protected the rodent brain from epilepsy.

Source: TASS

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