3-Fluorophenetrazine (3F-phenetrazine) is a novel amphetamine-like substance that is structurally similar to phenmetrazine and 3F-phenmetrazine. Despite the emergence of 3F-phenetrazine in recreational drug markets, its neuropharmacological profile and abuse liability remain poorly characterized. This study is the first to investigate the psychostimulant, rewarding, and reinforcing properties...
Novel psychoactive substances (NPSs) are new psychotropic drugs designed to evade substance regulatory policies. 25E-NBOMe (2-(4-ethyl-2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl)ethanamine) has recently been identified as an NPS, and its recreational misuse has been reported to be rapidly increasing. However, the psychopharmacological effects and mechanisms of 25E-NBOMe have not been studied. We...
2-(2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)-N-(2-methoxybenzyl)_ethanamine (25D-NBOMe), an analogue of the 2C family, is a newly synthesized psychoactive substance. It acts as an agonist at the 5-HT2A receptor and has a similar mechanism to that of NBOMe compounds. However, the pharmacological mechanism for its rewarding and reinforcing effects has not been revealed. In the present study, intravenous...
Among 14 subtypes of serotonin receptors (5-HTRs), 5-HT2AR plays important roles in drug addiction and various psychiatric disorders. Agonists for 5-HT2AR have been classified into three structural groups: phenethylamines, tryptamines, and ergolines. In this study, the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of phenethylamine and tryptamine derivatives for binding 5-HT2AR was determined. In...
Methoxphenidine is a dissociative-based novel psychoactive designer drug. Although fatal accidents from methoxphenidine abuse have been reported, recreational use of the drug continues. We aim to provide scientific supportfor legal regulation of recreational abuse of methoxphenidine by demonstrating its the pharmacological action. Addictive potential of methoxphenidine was examined using...
2C (2C-x) is the general name for the family of phenethylamines containing two methoxy groups at the 2 and 5 positions of the benzene ring. The abuse of 2C family drugs has grown rapidly, although the abuse potential and neurotoxic properties of 2C drugs have not yet been fully investigated. In this study, we investigated the abuse potential and neurotoxicity of...
5-Methoxy-α-methyltryptamine (5-MeO-AMT) is a tryptamine derivative that is used recreationally because of its reported hallucinogenic and mood elevating effects. Studies suggest that the psychopharmacological effects of tryptamines involve serotonin receptor 2a (5-HTR2a) activation in the brain. The head-twitch response (HTR) is widely used as a behavioral correlate for assessing 5-HTR2a...
Oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction have been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. We investigated whether antipsychotic clozapine modulates nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase and mitochondrial burdens induced by phencyclidine in mice. We examined the effect of clozapine on nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase activation, mitochondrial...
Accumulating evidence suggests that neuroinflammation is one of the important etiologic factors of abusive and neuropsychiatric disorders. Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is potent proinflammatory lipid mediat1or and plays a pivotal role in neuroinflammatory disorders through the specific PAF receptor (PAF-R). Phencyclidine (PCP) induces a psychotomimetic state that closely resembles...
Escalating evidence suggests that the impairment of glutathione (GSH)-dependent systems is one of the etiologic factors of schizophrenia. GSH is an important substrate of glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Among GPx isozymes, selenium-dependent GPx (GPx-1) is recognized as a major type, and therefore, this study investigates the role of the GPx-1 gene in abnormal behaviors induced by repeated...
Escalating evidence indicates that ginseng treatment protects against psychotoxic behaviors and memory impairment. Although the underlying mechanism of schizophrenia remains elusive, recent investigations proposed that downregulation of glutathione (GSH) can be involved in the pathogenesis of this disorder. Since little is known about the effects of ginseng in a schizophrenia-like animal model,...