Science Advances
August 15, 2025
Marcell J László, Judit P Vigh, Anna E Kocsis et al.
9 citations
N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a psychoactive molecule present in the human brain. DMT is under clinical evaluation as a neuroprotective agent in poststroke recovery. Yet, its mechanism of action remains poorly understood. In a rat transient middle cerebral artery occlusion stroke model, we previously showed that DMT reduces infarct volume. Here, we demonstrate that this effect is accompanied...
International review of neurobiology
2025
Ede Frecska, Attila Kovács, Attila Szabo
2 citations
This paper explores the therapeutic potential of DMT in neuroprotective strategies, particularly concerning ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) and neurodegenerative disorders. Besides its potent serotonin receptor actions, DMT is also an endogenous agonist of the sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R). Sigma receptors are a unique family of proteins with high expression in the brain and spinal cord and have...
Journal of Neuroscience and Neurological Disorders
April 19, 2024
Attila Kovács, Anna Mathe, Ede Frecska
2 citations
Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury (IRI) is the outcome of two intertwined pathological processes resulting from the shortage of blood flow to tissues and the subsequent restoration of circulation to a previously ischemic area. IRI (sometimes just one side of the dyad) remains one of the most challenging problems in several branches of emergency medicine. Mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum...
European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
November 1, 2023
Michael James Winkelman, Attila Szabo, Ede Frecska
26 citations
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a currently incurable but increasingly prevalent fatal and progressive neurodegenerative disease, demanding consideration of therapeutically relevant natural products and their synthetic analogues. This paper reviews evidence for effectiveness of natural and synthetic psychedelics in the treatment of AD causes and symptoms. The plastogenic effects of serotonergic...
Journal of Consciousness Studies
June 1, 2023
Ede Frecska, Ágnes Birtalan, Michael Winkelman
Soul belief is a universal of human culture and belief in multiple souls is common, especially in pre-modern traditions. This essay illustrates how a three-folded structure appears in the soul concepts of Mongolian shamanistic traditions. The reported accounts of the three souls among various Mongolian ethnic groups are somewhat divergent — especially in their consciousness-related attributes —...
Biomedicines
April 26, 2022
Anna Szilágyi, Barbara Takács, Réka Szekeres et al.
10 citations
Ischemic eye diseases are major causes of vision impairment. Thus, potential retinoprotective effects of N’N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) were investigated. To inhibit its rapid breakdown by monoamine-oxidase A (MAO-A) enzyme, DMT was co-administered with harmaline, a β-carboline in the Amazonian Ayahuasca brew. Using ligation, 60 min of ischemia was provoked in eyes of rats, followed by 7 days of...
Neuropharmacology
July 1, 2021
Írisz Szabó, Viktória É Varga, Szabolcs Dvorácskó et al.
67 citations
Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), an endogenous ligand of sigma-1 receptors (Sig-1Rs), acts against systemic hypoxia, but whether DMT may prevent cerebral ischemic injury is unexplored. Here global forebrain ischemia was created in anesthetized rats and aggravated with the induction of spreading depolarizations (SDs) and subsequent short hypoxia before reperfusion. Drugs (DMT, the selective Sig-1R...
Experimental Neurology
February 14, 2020
Sándor Nardai, Marcell J László, Attila Szabo et al.
91 citations
Background and purposeN,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous ligand of the Sigma 1 receptor (Sig-1R) with documented in vitro cytoprotective properties against hypoxia. Our aim was to demonstrate the in vivo neuroprotective effect of DMT following ischemia-reperfusion injury in the rat brain.MethodsTransient middle cerebral occlusion (MCAO) was induced for 60 min in male Wistar rats...
Frontiers in Neuroscience
September 14, 2016
Attila Szabo, Attila Kovács, Jordi Riba et al.
18 citations
N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a potent endogenous hallucinogen present in the brain of humans and other mammals. Despite extensive research, its physiological role remains largely unknown. Recently, DMT has been found to activate the sigma-1 receptor (Sig-1R), an intracellular chaperone fulfilling an interface role between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria. It ensures the...
Front Pharmacol
March 2, 2016
Ede Frecska, Petra Bokor, Michael Winkelman
237 citations
Ayahuasca is an Amazonian psychoactive brew of two main components. Its active agents are β-carboline and tryptamine derivatives. As a sacrament, ayahuasca is still a central element of many healing ceremonies in the Amazon Basin and its ritual consumption has become common among the mestizo populations of South America. Ayahuasca use amongst the indigenous people of the Amazon is a form of...
Neural Regeneration Research
2016
Attila Szabo, Ede Frecska
42 citations
The inflammatory theory of many neuropsychiatric illnesses has become an emerging trend in modern medicine. Various immune mechanisms – mainly via the activity of microglia – may contribute to the etiology and symptomatology of diseases, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, or Alzheimer's disease (Deleidi et al., 2015; Khandaker et al., 2015). Unwanted and excess inflammation is...
Frontiers in Pharmacology
2016
Petra Bokor, Ede Frecska, Michael Winkelman
Ayahuasca is an Amazonian psychoactive brew of two main components. Its active agents are β-carboline and tryptamine derivatives. As a sacrament, ayahuasca is still a central element of many healing ceremonies in the Amazon Basin and its ritual consumption has become common among the mestizo populations of South America. Ayahuasca use amongst the indigenous people of the Amazon is a form of...
PLoS One
2014
Attila Szabo, Attila Kovács, Ede Frecska et al.
191 citations
The orphan receptor sigma-1 (sigmar-1) is a transmembrane chaperone protein expressed in both the central nervous system and in immune cells. It has been shown to regulate neuronal differentiation and cell survival, and mediates anti-inflammatory responses and immunosuppression in murine in vivo models. Since the details of these findings have not been elucidated so far, we studied the effects...
J Neural Transm (Vienna)
April 26, 2013
Ede Frecska, Attila Szabo, Michael J. Winkelman et al.
107 citations
N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is classified as a naturally occurring serotonergic hallucinogen of plant origin. It has also been found in animal tissues and regarded as an endogenous trace amine transmitter. The vast majority of research on DMT has targeted its psychotropic/psychedelic properties with less focus on its effects beyond the nervous system. The recent discovery that DMT is an...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
July 1, 2012
Ede Frecska, Csaba E. Móré, András Vargha et al.
88 citations
Studying the effect of psychedelic substances on expression of creativity is a challenging problem. Our primary objective was to study the psychometric measures of creativity after a series of ayahuasca ceremonies at a time when the acute effects have subsided. The secondary objective was to investigate how entoptic phenomena emerge during expression of creativity. Forty individuals who were...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
September 1, 2003
Ede Frecska, Keith D. White, Luis E. Luna
12 citations
An early theoretical analysis supposed changes in hemispheric integration as the basis of altered state of consciousness induced by psychoactive drugs. Brain imaging studies revealed right cortical activation after administration of hallucinogens. Recent studies on binocular rivalry suggest that interhemispheric switching is the neural substrate of the perceptual oscillations observed during...