Background & aimTreatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) has remained largely unchanged and focuses primarily on symptomatic relief through activation of dopaminergic pathways. Currently, there are no proven prophylactic approaches to the prevention of PD. This systematic review seeks to compare two separate compounds, metformin (MTF) and psilocybin, as potenti...
Psychedelics are currently undergoing a scientific renaissance, with modern studies investigating therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapy in a range of psychiatric conditions. In particular, psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) has been suggested to have positive effects on patients suffering from depression and psychiatric distress associated with...
BackgroundElectrophysiologic measures provide an opportunity to inform mechanistic models and possibly biomarker prediction of response. Serotonergic psychedelics (SPs) (i.e., psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)) and ketamine represent new investigational and established treatments in mood disorders respectively. There is a need to better characteri...
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an aggressive, terminal neurodegenerative disease that causes death of motor neurons and has an average survival time of 3-4 years. ALS is the most common motor neuron degenerative disease and is increasing in prevalence. There is a pressing need for more effective ALS treatments as available pharmacotherapies do not re...
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a chronic relapsing psychiatric disorder. Conventional antidepressants usually require several weeks of continuous administration to exert clinically significant therapeutic effects, while about two-thirds of the patients are prone to relapse of symptoms or are completely ineffective in antidepressant treatment. The recent ...
Interest in the therapeutic potential of psilocybin across a broad range of neuropsychiatric disorders is rapidly expanding. Despite promising clinical data and tremendous public enthusiasm, complimentary basic and translational studies - which are critical for advancing our understanding of psilocybin's biological effects and promoting innovation - have bee...
Psychedelics are increasingly being recognized for their potential to treat a wide range of brain disorders including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorder. Their broad therapeutic potential might result from an ability to rescue cortical atrophy common to many neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases by impacti...
Interest in the potential therapeutic efficacy of psilocybin and other psychedelic compounds has escalated significantly in recent years. To date, little is known regarding the biological activity of the psilocybin pathway intermediate, norbaeocystin, due to limitations around sourcing the phosphorylated tryptamine metabolite for in vivo testing. To address ...
Serotonin 2A receptor (5-HTR) agonist "classic psychedelics" are drawing increasing interest as potential mental health treatments. Recent work suggests psychedelics can exert persisting anxiolytic and antidepressant effects lasting up to several months after a single administration. Data indicate acute subjective drug effects as important psychological fact...
The heteroreceptor complexes present a novel biological principle for signal integration. These complexes and their allosteric receptor-receptor interactions are bidirectional and novel targets for treatment of CNS diseases including mental diseases. The existence of D2R-5-HT2AR heterocomplexes can help explain the anti-schizophrenic effects of atypical anti...
Anorexia nervosa (AN) has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disease, yet available pharmacological treatments are largely ineffective due, in part, to an inadequate understanding of the neurobiological drivers that underpin the condition. The recent resurgence of research into the clinical applications of psychedelic medicine for a range of menta...
Bufotenine is an alkaloid derived from serotonin, structurally similar to LSD and psilocin. This molecule is able to inhibit the rabies virus infection in in vitro and in vivo models, increasing the survival rate of infected animals. Being a very promising molecule for an incurable disease and because of the fact that there is no consensus regarding its neur...
One of the oldest models of schizophrenia is based on the effects of serotonergic hallucinogens such as mescaline, psilocybin, and (+)-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which act through the serotonin 5-HT(2A) receptor. These compounds produce a 'model psychosis' in normal individuals that resembles at least some of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Ba...
Epidemiological studies indicate that maternal influenza viral infection increases the risk for schizophrenia in the adult offspring. The serotonin and glutamate systems are suspected in the etiology of schizophrenia, as well as in the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs. The effects of hallucinogens, such as psilocybin and mescaline, require the sero...
Histological analysis of the viscera in experimental poisoning with psilocybin-containing mushrooms showed nonspecific changes in all examined organs, presenting as expressed hemocirculatory disorders and intracellular dystrophy. Quantitative histochemical analysis showed appreciable shifts in the activities of enzymes involved in the cytoplasmic and mitocho...
Schizophrenic patients exhibit deficits in indices of sensorimotor gating, such as habituation and prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle reflex. Hallucinogenic drug-induced states are putative models for the early and acute stages of schizophrenic and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Hallucinogenic drugs have been shown to disrupt PPI and/or retard habit...
Hallucinogenic drugs (psychedelics, e.g. Psilocybin, Mescaline, LSD) induce in humans qualitatively altered states of consciousness (ASC), which can be used as experimental models for endogenous psychosis. However, some researchers claim that these ASCs are not appropriate models for schizophrenia. We report two clinical cases of acute endogenous psychoses d...
