Neurotoxicology
August 30, 2026
Mola Mohammadi, Amin Saeedi, Ali Asghar Kheirkhah Vakilabad et al.
Ketamine presents a modern pharmacological paradox, acting as both a rapid-acting antidepressant and a drug of abuse with significant cognitive consequences. While its therapeutic potential is revolutionary, chronic exposure is increasingly associated with persistent and specific deficits in episodic and working memory. This narrative review moves beyond descriptive lists of ketamine's effects...
Neurotoxicology
January 14, 2026
Martin Macháček, Markéta Bébarová
1 citation
Synthetic cathinones and phenethylamines are increasingly prevalent novel psychoactive substances with stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. They are associated with acute symptomatic seizures, often with lethal outcomes. Current management is usually limited to symptomatic therapy, as serotonin and sympathomimetic toxidromes are widely regarded as the main seizure-inducing mechanisms....
Neurotoxicology
May 1, 2025
Giulia Tomagra, Nikita Gandlevskiy, Elena Rosso et al.
3 citations
Cannabis sativa L. presents a very complex composition that includes several secondary metabolites besides the two main compounds, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Many of these minor cannabinoids are still under investigation and are arousing increasing interest for their biological effects and potential therapeutic roles. Cannabis sativa extracts, either properly purified...
Neurotoxicology
August 1, 2023
A. Ademosun, O. Ajeigbe, Bodun Oluwaseun Lawrence et al.
Most teenagers mix up various psychoactive cocktail substances in combinations to get intoxicated. The role of the mixture combination of codeine (CDE), tramadol (TMD), and Cannabis sativa (CNB) on brain cognition, purinergic, cholinergic, and antioxidant enzyme activities remains unknown. This study sought to assess the mechanism of action of combinations of CDE+ TMD+ CNB on the function and...
Neurotoxicology
July 2022
Nicolette Rigg, Fahed A Abu-Hijleh, Vidhi Patel et al.
Ketamine has traditionally been used as a dissociative anesthetic agent and more recently as a treatment for treatment-resistant depression. However, there is growing concern over the increased use of ketamine in recreational and therapeutic settings due to the potential neurotoxic effects. Recent studies have demonstrated that ketamine is cytotoxic in several cell types, such as fibroblasts,...
Neurotoxicology
March 1, 2022
María Eva González-Trujano, Felix Krengel, Ricardo Reyes-Chilpa et al.
14 citations
Several Apocynaceae species, most notably Tabernanthe iboga, Voacanga africana and many Tabernaemontana species, produce ibogan-type alkaloids. Although a large amount of information exists about the Tabernaemontana genus, knowledge concerning chemistry and biological activity remains lacking for several species, especially related to their effects on the central nervous system (CNS). The aim...
Neurotoxicology
March 2021
Giulia Costa, Stefan Spulber, Elena Paci et al.
Retracted
Clinical and preclinical evidence indicates that prenatal exposure to glucocorticoids may induce detrimental effects in the offspring, including reduction in fetal growth and alterations in the CNS. On this basis, the present study investigated whether in utero exposure to high levels of glucocorticoids is a risk factor that may lead to an exacerbation of the central noxious effects induced by...
Neurotoxicology
June 24, 2020
A. C. Ribeiro, Jackie Zhu, Mohamad M. Kronfol et al.
Exposure to organophosphates (OP) during the First Gulf War is among one of the factors for Gulf War Illness (GWI) development in veterans and it has been challenging to treat GWI symptoms with existing therapies. Ketamine produces a rapid-onset and sustained antidepressant response, but there is no evidence whether ketamine treatment is effective for GWI depression. Repeated, low-dose exposure...
Neurotoxicology
September 1, 2019
Anne Zwartsen, Laura Hondebrink, Remco Hs Westerink
22 citations
The use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) is increasing despite associated health risks and limited pharmacological and toxicological knowledge. Information is available mainly for acute effects on specific targets like monoamine transporters and receptors. Recently, we have shown the ability of several NPS and illicit drugs to modulate neuronal activity during acute exposure. While these...
Neurotoxicology
December 2018
Roberta Monteiro Incrocci, Franciely Paliarin, Manoel Jorge Nobre
Ketamine (KET) is a non-competitive N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors antagonist that intensifies sensory experiences, prompts hallucinations and delusions, exacerbates previously installed psychosis and disrupts physiological evoked potentials (AEPs). Pharmacologically, KET stimulates glutamate efflux in the medial prefrontal cortex, mainly in the prelimbic (PrL) sub-region. Efferences...
Neurotoxicology
May 1, 2018
Anne Zwartsen, Laura Hondebrink, Remco Hs Westerink
42 citations
While the prevalence and the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) is steadily increasing, data on pharmacological, toxicological and clinical effects is limited. Considering the large number of NPS available, there is a clear need for efficient in vitro screening techniques that capture multiple mechanisms of action. Neuronal cultures grown on multi-well microelectrode arrays (mwMEAs) have...
Neurotoxicology
December 2016
Courtney L Huff, Rachel L Morano, James P Herman et al.
3,4-Methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) is a unique psychostimulant that continues to be a popular drug of abuse. It has been well documented that MDMA reduces markers of 5-HT axon terminals in rodents, as well as humans. A loss of parvalbumin-immunoreactive (IR) interneurons in the hippocampus following MDMA treatment has only been documented recently. In the present study, we tested the...
Neurotoxicology
September 2016
Rubén García‐cabrerizo, M Julia García-Fuster
The aim of this study was to compare the effects of amphetamine-like psychostimulant drugs (i.e., MDMA, methamphetamine, D-amphetamine) on rat hippocampal cell genesis at different developmental ages (i.e., early adolescence vs. young adulthood) to determine if there were periods of vulnerability to drug-induced brain changes. Although adolescence is a period of great vulnerability to the...
Neurotoxicology
January 2016
I-Hsun Li, Kuo-Hsing Ma, Tzu-Jen Kao et al.
It has been suggested that autophagy plays pathogenetic roles in cerebral ischemia, brain trauma, and neurodegenerative disorders. 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) is an illicit drug that causes long-term serotonergic neurotoxicity in the brain. Apoptosis and necrosis have been implicated in MDMA-induced neurotoxicity, but the role of autophagy in MDMA-elicited serotonergic...
Neurotoxicology
July 2015
Rubén García‐cabrerizo, M Julia García-Fuster
While hippocampus is a brain region particularly susceptible to the effects of MDMA, the cellular and molecular changes induced by MDMA are still to be fully elucidated, being the dosage regimen, the species and the developmental stage under study great variables. This study compared the effects of one and four days of MDMA administration following a binge paradigm (3×5 mg/kg, i.p., every 2 h)...
Neurotoxicology
March 2013
Laura Hondebrink, Sijie Tan, Elise Hermans et al.
Yearly, exposure to drugs of abuse results in ∼1 million emergency department visits in the US. In ∼50% of the visits, stimulant drugs like cocaine and amphetamine-like substances (e.g. 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, the main active ingredient of ecstasy)) are involved, whereas in ∼60% multiple drugs are involved. These drugs induce higher dopamine and serotonin levels resulting in...
Neurotoxicology
January 2013
João Paulo Capela, Silvana Da Costa Araújo, Vera Marisa Costa et al.
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or "Ecstasy") and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine hydrochloride (DOI) are hallucinogenic amphetamines with addictive properties. The hippocampus is involved in learning and memory and seems particularly vulnerable to amphetamine's neurotoxicity. We evaluated the neurotoxicity of DOI and MDMA in primary neuronal cultures of hippocampus obtained from Wistar...
Neurotoxicology
March 2012
Laura Hondebrink, Jan Meulenbelt, Saskia J. Rietjens et al.
Reversal of the dopamine (DA) membrane transporter is the main mechanism through which many drugs of abuse increase DA levels. However, drug-induced modulation of exocytotic DA release by electrical (depolarization) and neurochemical inputs (e.g., acetylcholine (ACh)) may also contribute. We therefore investigated effects of methamphetamine, amphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine...
Neurotoxicology
December 2011
Laura Hondebrink, Jan Meulenbelt, Regina G D M Van Kleef et al.
Drugs of abuse are known to mainly affect the dopaminergic and serotonergic system, although behavioral studies indicated that the GABA-ergic system also plays a role. We therefore investigated the acute effects of several commonly used drugs of abuse (methamphetamine, amphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and meta-chlorophenylpiperazine...
Neurotoxicology
August 26, 2010
MDMA administration decreases serotonin but not N-acetylaspartate in the rat brain.
Neurotoxicology
November 2008
Katsutoshi Shioda, Koichi Nisijima, Tatsuki Yoshino et al.
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") is a widely used recreational drug. Despite an increase in the number of fatalities related to its use, no definite therapeutic method has been established thus far. In the present study, risperidone's ability to attenuate MDMA-induced hyperthermia and its mechanism of action were investigated in rats. The pharmacological effect of MDMA was...
Neurotoxicology
November 2007
Anna M S Kindlundh-Högberg, Helgi B Schiöth, Per Svenningsson
The popular recreational drug, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is often taken as intermittent binges by adolescents at dance clubs. The neurobiological mechanisms that underlie MDMA-induced psychiatric conditions are still poorly understood. In the present study, mimicking adolescent patterns of administration, repeated intermittent MDMA binges (3x5 mg/(kg day) given 3h apart, every...
Neurotoxicology
July 2007
João Paulo Capela, Eduarda Fernandes, Fernando Remião et al.
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or "Ecstasy") is a psychoactive and hallucinogenic drug of abuse. MDMA has been shown to produce neurotoxicity both in animals and humans. MDMA and other amphetamines induce serotonergic and dopaminergic terminal neurotoxicity and also neurodegeneration in areas including the cortex, hippocampus, striatum and thalamus. Herein, we investigated the...
Neurotoxicology
July 6, 2005
María E. Reverón, Terrence J. Monks, Christine L. Duvauchelle
24 citations
In the present study the effects of a neurotoxic regimen of (+)-MDMA (20 mg/kgx4, s.c.) in 4- and 10-week-old C57Bl/6J mice during treatment and 7 days post-treatment were examined. Rectal temperatures monitored between (+)-MDMA injections (30 min post-injection/2 h intervals) revealed hyperthermic responses in both age groups, with the magnitude of the response significantly greater in older...
Neurotoxicology
June 2003
John F Bowyer, John F Young, William Slikker et al.
Plasma levels of parent compounds and metabolites were determined in adult rhesus monkeys after doses of either 5mg/kg d-fenfluramine (FEN) or 10mg/kg d-3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) i.m. twice daily for four consecutive days. These treatment regimens have been previously shown to produce long-term serotonin (5-HT) depletions. Peak plasma levels of 2.0+/-0.4 microM FEN were reached...