Cannabidiol might overvalue and under deliver, intimidates FDA

The manufacturing and usage of Cannabidiol(CBD) creams, gels, and pills which are said to be a non-psychedelic, potentially curative compound in the cannabis plant, have been rapidly increasing in the past five years. But CBD is still under speculations, with the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) getting through scientific and public comments to clarify its regulatory strategy toward CBD products. Meanwhile, FDA has started issuing warnings over manufacturers’ grievous claims about CBD’s curative effects.

According to the latest development, the FDA warned a CBD manufacturer for making unproven medical claims about CBD’s health benefits. Besides he also claimed that the compound could treat Alzheimer’s disease and kill breast cancer cells which are again a questionable claim.

Dr. Ned Sharpless, the acting Commissioner of FDA said, “Selling unapproved products with unproven therapeutic claims- such claims that CBD products can treat serious diseases and conditions- this can put off patients from important medical care,”. He further added that there are speculations about the science, safety, and quality of the unapproved CBD products.

Not to be a dietary supplement

FDA has pumped brakes on the CBD products in 2019 for been approved of specific drug usage. Hence it cannot be used as a food supplement. Brian Prather, a registered pharmacist in Michigan selling CBD products, told that the isolated CBD extract from marijuana, which is a cannabis plant higher in concentrations of THC, does not meet the definition of dietary supplement according to the agency’s definitions. It could be subject to FDA action. But CBD extracted from hemp have extremely low-THC cannabis is not federally scheduled as a drug.

Hemp plants, the cannabis plants with 0.3% or lesser THC, are the plants that are no longer defined as marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act.

Emerita at Indiana University School of Medicine stated that companies involved in the CBD market are seeking FDA to place it in the category of food additives called ‘generally recognized as safe’. Although, he dissents as adequate research is yet to be performed and until then it should be confined to ‘prescription-only’ status for its safety and efficacy be established.

A Permanent Fix on Tuberculosis: Claim Indian Scientists

Researchers from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR)- Indian Institue of Chemical Biology Kolkata, and Jadavpur University formed a team and reached a result of how tuberculosis is released from the sacs granuloma formed by the macrophages around the bacteria.

Being amongst the deadliest diseases, Tuberculosis kills about nine million people every year. Surprisingly, out of the nine million people, 32% are Indians.

The disease is been studied for years with no positive results.  Now Scientists have found that the TB bacteria secrete a protein called MPT6, which can be a reason behind the rupture. When there is acidity, these protein structures can change their formation and become toxic to the host cells(macrophages). Rarely people realize that they are infected with TB as it remains in a dormant state until it is infectious. Therefore the cells are killed and the dormant bacteria are released which ultimately harms the body.

The team would try to validate these findings in field strains of TB bacillus and study if they can be used to develop new curative interventions. With this discovery, scientists will be looking for methods to neutralize the effect of MPT6 protein and research to keep the TB locked-in permanently and save millions of patients. The results will be presented in the Journal of ACS Chemical Biology.