Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
December 12, 2008
Sarah Durkin, Alison Prendergast, Andrew Harkin
Long-term serotonin (5-HT) neuronal loss is currently a major cause of concern associated with recreational use of the substituted amphetamine 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; "Ecstasy"). Such loss may be problematic considering that psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety and responses to first line treatments for these disorders are associated with 5-HT. In this study the...
Yakugaku Zasshi
December 1, 2008
Kanako Satoh, Ryouichi Nonaka
4 citations
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government in Japan enacted an "Ordinance concerning the abuse prevention of the psychoactive drugs" in April 2006 that prohibited the manufacture, cultivation, sales, possession, use, etc., of these drugs. Therefore, we constructed a reproducible, simple, and small-scale determination method of the psychoactive drugs for the re-uptake and the release of monoamines...
NMR in Biomedicine
November 4, 2008
Shane A. Perrine, Mark S. Michaels, Farhad Ghoddoussi et al.
39 citations
Abstract Despite the potential for deleterious (even fatal) effects on cardiac physiology, 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; ecstasy) abuse abounds driven mainly by its euphoric effects. Acute exposure to MDMA has profound cardiovascular effects on blood pressure and heart rate in humans and animals. To determine the effects of MDMA on cardiac metabolites in rats, MDMA (0, 5, or 10...
Psychopharmacology
November 2008
Jörg Daumann, Karsten Heekeren, Anna Neukirch et al.
Attentional deficits are common symptoms in schizophrenia. Recent evidence suggests that schizophrenic patients show abnormalities in spatial orienting of attention, particularly a deficit of inhibition of return (IOR). IOR is mostly thought to reflect an automatic, inhibitory mechanism protecting the organism from redirecting attention to previously scanned, insignificant locations....
Brain Research Bulletin
October 22, 2008
Allison A. Feduccia, Christine L. Duvauchelle
MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), also known as ecstasy, is a popular drug often taken in environments rich in audio and visual stimulation, such as clubs and dance parties. The present experiments were conducted to test the notion that auditory stimulation influences the rewarding effects of MDMA. In Experiment 1, a conditioned place preference (CPP) procedure was conducted in which...
European Journal of Pharmacology
October 10, 2008
Didier Cussac, Elisa Boutet-Robinet, Marie-Christine Ailhaud et al.
Several examples of agonist-directed trafficking of receptor signalling at 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptors have been reported that involve independent downstream transduction pathways. We now report the functional selectivity of a series of chemically diverse agonists at human (h)5-HT2A, h5-HT2B and h5-HT2C-VSV by examining two related responses, the upstream activation of Gq/11 proteins in...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
October 2, 2008
Sj Kish, Paul S. Fitzmaurice, Lj Chang et al.
31 citations
Evidence that the widely used methamphetamine analog MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, ecstasy) might damage brain serotonin neurones in humans is derived from imaging investigations showing variably decreased binding of radioligands to the serotonin transporter (SERT), a marker of serotonin neurones. However, in humans, it is not known whether low SERT binding reflects actual loss of...
Psychopharmacology
October 2008
Una D. Mccann, Zsolt Szabó, Melin Vranesic et al.
(+/-)3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "ecstasy") is a recreational drug and brain serotonin (5-HT) neurotoxin. Under certain conditions, MDMA can also damage brain dopamine (DA) neurons, at least in rodents. Human MDMA users have been found to have reduced brain 5-HT transporter (SERT) density and cognitive deficits, although it is not known whether these are related. This study sought...
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
October 1, 2008
Jerrold S. Meyer, Brian J. Piper, Valerie E. Vancollie
44 citations
Adult animals treated with high doses of MDMA (“ecstasy”) either on a single day or for several consecutive days show numerous behavioral changes as well as persistent reductions in brain serotonin (5‐HT) concentrations and 5‐HT transporter (SERT) protein expression. However, such dosing regimens do not adequately mimic the intermittent use patterns commonly seen in adolescent recreational...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
September 2008
Eszter Kirilly, Eszter Molnár, Brigitta Balogh et al.
The recreational drug ecstasy [3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)], has been found to selectively damage brain serotonin neurons in experimental animals, and probably in human MDMA users, but detailed morphometric analyses and parallel functional measures during damage and recovery are missing. Since there is evidence that serotonin regulates sleep, we have compared serotonergic markers...
Journal of Neurochemistry
September 2008
Megumi Higuchi, Yuichi Suzuki, Yumi Yatani et al.
Several lines of evidence suggest the involvement of the raphe-serotonergic neurons in addiction to psychostimulants and some recreational drugs. In this study, we established rat organotypic mesencephalic slice cultures containing the raphe nuclei and examined the effects of sustained exposure to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and methamphetamine (METH). Immunostaining for tryptophan...
Neuroscience Letters
August 22, 2008
Shanker Jha, Rajeev Rajendran, Kimberly A Fernandes et al.
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is reported to be a target of antidepressants, drugs of abuse and animal models of depression, suggesting a role for this form of structural plasticity in psychopathology. Serotonergic neurotransmission, which is implicated in several psychiatric diseases, has been reported to regulate adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Amongst the serotonergic receptors, the...
Behavioural Brain Research
August 22, 2008
Sally Martin, Maarten Van den Buuse
The aim of this study was to investigate the role of forebrain serotonin projections in behavioural models with relevance to schizophrenia. Mice received stereotaxic micro-injections of the serotonin neurotoxin 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine into the median raphe nucleus (MRN). Two weeks later, MRN-lesioned mice were hyperactive at baseline and showed enhanced locomotor hyperactivity induced by...
Behavioural Brain Research
August 5, 2008
Shikha Snigdha, Joanna C. Neill
We have recently shown that sub-chronic phencyclidine (PCP) treatment produces social behaviour deficits in female rats which are reversed by ziprasidone but not haloperidol or clozapine. This investigation was designed to extend the previous findings and identify the role of 5-HT(1A) receptors in mediating the effects of these drugs in this model. Female hooded-Lister rats received vehicle...
TIPS - Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
August 1, 2008
Mark A. Geyer, Franz X. Vollenweider
435 citations
The history of serotonin research is closely related to the study of hallucinogenic drugs that function as agonists at serotonin-2A receptors. The fundamental idea that psychotic states seen in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia might be attributable, in part, to abnormalities in serotonergic systems began with the almost simultaneous discovery of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD),...
Journal of molecular graphics & modelling
August 1, 2008
Jenelle K Bray, William A Goddard
35 citations
We used the MembStruk computational procedure to predict the three-dimensional (3D) structure for the serotonin 5-HT(2C) G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR). Using this structure, we used the MSCDock computational procedure to predict the 3D structures for bound ligand-protein complexes for agonists such as serotonin and antagonists such as ritanserin, metergoline, and methiothepin. In addition,...
Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior
July 30, 2008
Jesse A May, Najam A Sharif, Hwang-Hsing Chen et al.
AL-38022A is a novel synthetic serotonergic (5-HT) ligand that exhibited high affinity for each of the 5-HT2 receptor subtypes (Ki100-fold less) affinity for other 5-HT receptors. In addition, AL-38022A displayed a very low affinity for a broad array of other receptors, neurotransmitter transport sites, ion channels, and second messenger elements, making it a relatively selective agent....
Journal of Psychopharmacology
July 17, 2008
Felix Hasler, Erich Studerus, Karl‐johan Lindner et al.
53 citations
Serotonin (5-HT) release is the primary pharmacological mechanism of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ‘ecstasy’) action in the primate brain. Dopamine release and direct stimulation of dopamine D2 and serotonin 5-HT 2A receptors also contributes to the overall action of MDMA. The role of 5-HT 1A receptors in the human psychopharmacology of MDMA, however, has not yet been elucidated. In...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
July 9, 2008
Thibault Renoir, Eleni Païzanis, Malika El Yacoubi et al.
58 citations
Although numerous studies investigated the mechanisms underlying 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-induced neurotoxicity, little is known about its long-term functional consequences on 5-HT neurotransmission in mice. This led us to evaluate the delayed effects of MDMA exposure on the 5-HT system, using in-vitro and in-vivo approaches in both 5-HTT wild-type and knock-out mice. Acute MDMA...
Neuropharmacology
July 2, 2008
John A Allen, Prem N. Yadav, Bryan L. Roth
5-HT(2A) serotonin receptors are essential molecular targets for the actions of LSD-like hallucinogens and atypical antipsychotic drugs. 5-HT(2A) serotonin receptors also mediate a variety of physiological processes in peripheral and central nervous systems including platelet aggregation, smooth muscle contraction, and the modulation of mood and perception. Scaffolding proteins have emerged as...