bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
August 12, 2026
Orr Shahar, Alexander Botvinnik, Masha Chaykin et al.
preprint
Abstract N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and 5-methoxy-N, N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) are structurally related tryptamine psychedelics with emerging therapeutic potential, yet their comparative acute pharmacology and longer-term neuroplastic effects remain incompletely defined. Here we show that DMT produces a bell-shaped dose–response curve in the mouse head-twitch response (HTR) assay,...
Molecular Psychiatry
July 1, 2024
Orr Shahar, Alexander Botvinnik, Amit Shwartz et al.
37 citations
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring, tryptamine alkaloid prodrug, is currently being investigated for the treatment of a range of psychiatric disorders. Preclinical reports suggest that the biological effects of psilocybin-containing mushroom extract or "full spectrum" (psychedelic) mushroom extract (PME), may differ from those of chemically synthesized psilocybin (PSIL). We compared the effects...
Frontiers in Pharmacology
April 18, 2024
Elad Lerer, Alexander Botvinnik, Orr Shahar et al.
14 citations
Background: Immediate early genes (IEGs) are rapidly activated and initiate diverse cellular processes including neuroplasticity. We report the effect of psilocybin (PSIL), PSIL-containing psychedelic mushroom extract (PME) and 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) on expression of the IEGs, cfos, egr1 , and egr2 in mouse somatosensory cortex (SSC). Methods: In our initial experiment, male C57Bl/6j mice...
Research Square
July 20, 2023
Orr Shahar, Alexander Botvinnik, Amit Shwartz et al.
3 citations
Abstract Psilocybin, a naturally occurring, tryptamine alkaloid prodrug, is currently being investigated for the treatment of a range of psychiatric disorders. Preclinical reports suggest that the biological effects of psilocybin-containing mushroom extract or “full spectrum” (psychedelic) mushroom extract (PME), may differ from those of chemically synthesized psilocybin (PSIL). We compared the...
PLoS Genetics
June 14, 2016
Rachel Bachner-Melman, Christian Dina, Ada H Zohar et al.
Dancing, which is integrally related to music, likely has its origins close to the birth of Homo sapiens, and throughout our history, dancing has been universally practiced in all societies. We hypothesized that there are differences among individuals in aptitude, propensity, and need for dancing that may partially be based on differences in common genetic polymorphisms. Identifying such...