Neuroscience
April 6, 2026
Fernando Minauro-Sanmiguel, Hector Vargas-Perez
Mitochondrial dysfunction is increasingly recognized as a central driver of Alzheimer's disease (AD), contributing to neuroinflammation, synaptic failure, and energy collapse.Emerging preclinical evidence suggests that classic hallucinogens, such as psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), mescaline, may restore mitochondrial integrity by activating Serotonin...
Neuroscience Letters
January 18, 2024
Hector Vargas-Perez, Fernando Minauro-Sanmiguel, Ryan Ting-A-Kee et al.
2 citations
According to the opponent-process theory of drug addiction, the intake of an addictive substance initiates two processes: a rapid primary process that results in the drug's rewarding effects, and a slower opponent process that leads to the aversive motivational state of drug aftereffects. This aversive state is integral in the desire, pursuit, and maintenance of drug use, potentially leading to...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
2023
Hector Vargas-Perez, Taryn Elizabeth Grieder, Derek van der Kooy
Aberrant glutamatergic signaling has been closely related to several pathologies of the central nervous system. Glutamatergic activity can induce an increase in neural plasticity mediated by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a nodal point in the mesolimbic dopamine system. Recent studies have related BDNF dependent plasticity in the VTA with the...
European Journal of Neuroscience
June 1, 2017
Hector Vargas-Perez, Taryn E Grieder, Ryan Ting-A-Kee et al.
21 citations
Despite several studies suggesting the therapeutic use of 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors type 2A (5-HT2A ) agonists in the treatment of substance use disorders, the neurobiological basis accounting for such effects are still unknown. It has been observed that chronic exposure to drugs of abuse produces molecular and cellular adaptations in ventral tegmental area (VTA) neurons, mediated by...