Psychopharmacology
July 1, 2025
Raly James Perez Custodio, Darlene Mae Ortiz, Hyun Jun Lee et al.
8 citations
Serotonergic psychedelics exert their effects via their high affinity for serotonin (5-HT) receptors, particularly through activating 5-HT2A receptors (5-HT2AR), employing the frontal cortex-dependent head-twitch response (HTR). Although universally believed to be so, studies have not yet fully ascertained whether 5-HT2AR activation is the sole initiator of these psychedelic effects. This is...
Frontiers in Pharmacology
March 16, 2023
Leandro Val Sayson, Darlene Mae Ortiz, Hyun Jun Lee et al.
4 citations
Synthetic cannabinoids have exhibited unpredictable abuse liabilities, especially self-administration (SA) responses in normal rodent models, despite seemingly inducing addiction-like effects in humans. Thus, an efficient pre-clinical model must be developed to determine cannabinoid abuse potential in animals and describe the mechanism that may mediate cannabinoid sensitivity. The Cryab...
Biomolecules & Therapeutics
February 15, 2023
Darlene Mae Ortiz, Mikyung Kim, Hyun Jun Lee et al.
3 citations
Major depressive disorder is a leading cause of disability in more than 280 million people worldwide. Monoamine-based antidepressants are currently used to treat depression, but delays in treatment effects and lack of responses are major reasons for the need to develop faster and more efficient antidepressants. Studies show that ketamine (KET), a PCP analog, produces antidepressant effects...
Neuropharmacology
August 1, 2021
Chrislean Jun Botanas, Raly James Perez Custodio, Hee Jin Kim et al.
13 citations
The newfound antidepressant efficacy of ketamine has provided opportunities for the development of new-generation, rapid-acting, glutamate-based antidepressants. We previously identified that methoxetamine (MXE), a ketamine analog, and an N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, produced rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in mice. MXE (R, S (±)-MXE) is a racemic mixture...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
July 10, 2020
Raly James Perez Custodio, Leandro Val Sayson, Chrislean Jun Botanas et al.
15 citations
Background: Recently, the recreational use of substituted phenethylamines has grown rapidly. Among these are 2-(3,5-dimethoxy-4-((2-methylallyl)oxy)phenyl)ethanamine (MAL) and 2-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenyl)-2-methoxyethan-1-amine (BOD). However, studies characterizing their abuse potential are still lacking. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the abuse potential of MAL and BOD....
Psychopharmacology
March 1, 2020
Arvie Abiero, Chrislean Jun Botanas, Raly James Custodio et al.
A high number of synthetic dissociative drugs continue to be available through online stores, leading to their misuse. Recent inclusions in this category are 4-MeO-PCP and 3-MeO-PCMo, analogs of phencyclidine. Although the dissociative effects of these drugs and their recreational use have been reported, no studies have investigated their abuse potential. To examine their rewarding and...
Psychopharmacology
March 19, 2019
L. Sayson, Chrislean Jun Botanas, Raly James Perez Custodio et al.
RationaleDepressive syndrome or depression is a debilitating brain disorder affecting numerous people worldwide. Although readily available, current antidepressants have low remission rates and late onset times. Recently, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists, like ketamine and methoxetamine (MXE), were found to elicit rapid antidepressant effects. As the search for...
Behavioural Brain Research
February 1, 2019
Arvie Abiero, Chrislean Jun Botanas, Leandro Val Sayson et al.
17 citations
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...
Neuropharmacology
November 1, 2017
Chrislean Jun Botanas, June Bryan De la Peña, Raly James Perez Custodio et al.
Depression afflicts around 16% of the world's population, making it one of the leading causes of disease burden worldwide. Despite a number of antidepressants available today, the delayed onset time and low remission rate of these treatments are still a major challenge. The N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine has shown to produce rapid and sustained antidepressant effects...