Darlene Mae Ortiz - 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

Papers

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

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

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

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