Age‐Dependent Anti‐seizure and Neuroprotective Effect of Cannabidivarin in Neonatal Rats
Authors: Huizenga Megan , Forcelli Patrick 
Published: June 2021

Neonatal seizures and seizures of infancy represent a significant cause of morbidity. 30–40% of infants and children with seizures will fail to achieve seizure remission with current anti‐epileptic drug (AED) treatment. Moreover, pharmacotherapy during critical periods of brain development can adversely affect nervous system function. We, and others, have shown that early life exposure to AEDs including phenobarbital, phenytoin, and valproate are associated with induction of enhanced neuronal apoptosis during a confined period of postnatal development in rats. Thus, identification of new therapies for neonatal/infantile epilepsy syndromes that provide seizure control without neuronal toxicity is a high priority.

Current clinical trials report that modulation of the cannabinoid system with the phytocannabinoid cannabidiol exerts anti‐seizure effects in children with epilepsy. While cannabidiol and the propyl analog cannabidivarin (CBDV) display anti‐seizure efficacy in adult animal models of seizures/epilepsy, they remained unexplored in neonatal models. Therefore, we investigated the therapeutic potential of CBDV in multiple neonatal rodent seizure models. To evaluate the therapeutic potential of CBDV, we tested its anti‐seizure efficacy in five models of neonatal seizures: pentylenetetrazole (PTZ), DMCM, hypoxia, kainate and NMDA‐evoked spasms, each representing a different clinical seizure phenotype. We also evaluated the preclinical safety profile in the developing brain.

Postnatal day (P) 10 or P20 male, Sprague‐Dawley rat pups were pretreated with CBDV or vehicle prior to chemically or hypoxia induced seizures. CBDV only displayed anticonvulsant effects in the P20 rat pups in the PTZ and DMCM models, with no effect on seizure severity or latency in the P10 animals. Therefore, we next measured the relative expression of known targets for CBDV (TRPV1, TRPA1) to determine a mechanism for which CBDV is anticonvulsant in P20, but not P10 animals. The P20 animals show increased expression of TRPV1 in key brain regions implicated in epileptogenic activity.

Finally, CBDV was administered to the developmentally sensitive P7 rat pups and neuronal cell death was examined 24 hours post‐treatment. Fluoro‐Jade B staining was used to label apoptosis in several brain regions including: cingulate cortex, striatum, lateral septum. CBDV did not enhance developmental apoptosis above vehicle control levels.

Together, these results indicate that modulation of the cannabinoid system in a receptor independent manner can provide seizure control in developing animals, but in an age specific manner. Further, during a developmentally sensitive neonatal period, drugs targeting the cannabinoid system do not induce neuronal apoptosis characteristic of many other AEDs. These results provide some of the first systemic, preclinical data evaluating CBDV in pediatric models of epilepsy.

Support or Funding Information

Center for Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI)

NIH TL1‐TR001431 Translational Biomedical Science Program

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.