Leandro Val Sayson - The Consciousness Library

Serotonin 2C receptors are also important in head-twitch responses in male mice.

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...

DOI: 10.1007/s00213-023-06482-9 Full text Mescaline Bod Head-twitch response Inflammation +3

Deletion of Cryab increases the vulnerability of mice to the addiction-like effects of the cannabinoid JWH-018 via upregulation of striatal NF-κB expression

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...

DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1135929 Addiction Synaptic plasticity Conditioned place preference Neuroinflammation +11

4-F-PCP, a Novel PCP Analog Ameliorates the Depressive-Like Behavior of Chronic Social Defeat Stress Mice via NMDA Receptor Antagonism

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...

DOI: 10.4062/biomolther.2022.159 Serotonin Antidepressant Nmda receptor Monoamine neurotransmitter +3

R (-)-methoxetamine exerts rapid and sustained antidepressant effects and fewer behavioral side effects relative to S (+)-methoxetamine.

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...

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2021.108619 Full text Depression Antidepressant Enantiomers Methoxetamine +1

Two newly-emerging substituted phenethylamines MAL and BOD induce differential psychopharmacological effects in rodents

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....

DOI: 10.1177/0269881120936458 Ventral tegmental area Nucleus accumbens Conditioned place preference Mesolimbic pathway +2

4-MeO-PCP and 3-MeO-PCMo, new dissociative drugs, produce rewarding and reinforcing effects through activation of mesolimbic dopamine pathway and alteration of accumbal CREB, deltaFosB, and BDNF levels.

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...

DOI: 10.1007/s00213-019-05412-y Full text 3-meo-pcmo 4-meo-pcp Abuse potential Dopaminergic system +2

5-Methoxy-α-methyltryptamine (5-MeO-AMT), a tryptamine derivative, induces head-twitch responses in mice through the activation of serotonin receptor 2a in the prefrontal cortex.

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...

DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2018.07.020 Full text 5-methoxy-a-methyltryptamine Conditioned place preference Head-twitch response Self-administration +1

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