Non-Hallucinogenic Psychedelic Analog Rapidly Reverses Effects of Stress on the Brain
martyb writes:
Non-hallucinogenic Psychedelic Analog Rapidly Reverses Effects of Stress on the Brain:
A novel compound similar in structure to the psychedelic drug ibogaine, but lacking its toxic and hallucinogenic effects, has been found to rapidly reverse the effects of stress in mice.
Researchers found that a single dose of tabernanthalog (TBG) can correct stress-induced behavioral deficits, including anxiety and cognitive inflexibility, and also promotes the regrowth of neuronal connections and restores neural circuits in the brain that are disrupted by stress.
"It was very surprising that a single treatment with a low dose had such dramatic effects within a day," said corresponding author Yi Zuo, professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at UC Santa Cruz. "I had a hard time believing it even when I saw the initial data."
[...] Ibogaine has shown promise for treating addiction, but it causes dangerous heart arrhythmias in addition to being a powerful hallucinogen. TBG has not yet been tested in humans, but it lacks ibogaine's toxicity in animal tests, and it doesn't induce the head-twitch behavior in mice caused by known hallucinogens.
Initial studies of TBG found that it had antidepressant effects and reduced addictive behaviors in rodents. [...] The researchers conducted a range of tests to evaluate behavioral responses to stress and the effects of treatment with TBG. They also performed imaging studies to assess changes in the brains of the mice at the neuronal level.
Journal Reference:
Ju Lu, Michelle Tjia, David Olson, et al. An analog of psychedelics restores functional neural circuits disrupted by unpredictable stress [open], Molecular Psychiatry (DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01159-1)
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