Skip to content

Psychedelics As A New Anti‐Inflammatory Therapeutic For Atherosclerosis

C. Nichols, Melaine N. Sebastian, Thomas W. Flanagan

The FASEB Journal April 1, 2017 DOI: 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.825.3 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Animal study Peer reviewed
Population ApoE-deficient mice on a high-fat diet
Key points The psychedelic (R)-DOI reduces atherosclerosis in ApoE-deficient mice by inhibiting specific inflammatory pathways in innate and Th2 cells.

Abstract

We previously discovered that serotonin 5‐HT2A receptor activation with psychedelics has potent anti‐inflammatory activity in both cell culture and whole animals, which indicated potent anti‐inflammatory effects in vascular tissues among others. More recently we found that the psychedelic (R)‐DOI potently prevents the development of allergic asthma in a mouse model. The effects of (R)‐DOI were found to not result from a generalized anti‐inflammatory process, but due to specific inflammatory pathways inhibition in both innate and Th2 cells. In this work, we have examined the therapeutic effects of the psychedelic (R)‐DOI in the ApoE −/− high‐fat model of atherosclerosis.