Neuropsychopharmacology Reports
September 1, 2026
Daisuke Ibi, Rika Takaba, Keisuke Yoshida et al.
Psychedelics such as psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) exert hallucinogenic effects through stimulation of serotonin 5-HT2A receptors (5-HT2ARs) in the cerebral cortex. In recent years, numerous reports have demonstrated that psychedelics are effective in treating various psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD), treatment-resistant depression (TRD), and...
Neuroscience
August 30, 2026
Yang Wang, Sinem Cetinkaya Karaca, Mille Deckmann Rasmussen et al.
Classical psychedelics exert therapeutic effects on affective disorders, with serotonin 5-HT2A receptor activation thought to play a central role. The cellular mechanisms by which 5-HT2A signaling modulates neural circuits remain incompletely understood and may differ across mood-regulating brain regions. While psychedelic actions have been extensively studied in the medial prefrontal cortex,...
Neurochemical Research
August 27, 2026
Kazutoshi Yonemura, Nobue Kitanaka, Kazuo Tomita et al.
Cannabis, widely used for both medical and non-medical purposes, primarily contains Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Δ9-THC is the main driver of cannabis abuse and of psychological and physical dependence, whereas CBD has limited abuse potential and is even being investigated as a treatment for cannabis use disorder and other conditions. This review aims to clarify how...
Nursing Edição Brasileira
August 27, 2026
Ana Júlia Costa Matias Gomes, Jéssica Camilo Ramos Rodrigues, Valber Pinheiro Padilha Filho
Os psicodélicos clássicos, como a psilocibina, o LSD e a DMT, têm despertado crescente interesse na psiquiatria moderna devido ao seu potencial terapêutico em transtornos resistentes ao tratamento. O mecanismo de ação primário dessas substâncias envolve o agonismo dos receptores de serotonina 5-HT2A, localizados principalmente no córtex pré-frontal. Esta revisão sistemática analisou como a...
bioRxiv
August 19, 2026
D. Momi, Yasmeen Nahas, D. Wyrick et al.
preprint
Psilocybin produces rapid and lasting therapeutic effects, yet how 5-HT2A receptor activation reshapes brain-wide circuit dynamics during acute drug administration remains poorly understood. Using simultaneous multi-region Neuropixels recordings of 46,360 single units from 35 mice, together with scalp electroencephalography (EEG), pupillometry, and locomotion monitoring, we provide a...
ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science
August 18, 2026
Richard A Glennon, Maƚgorzata Dukat
Abstract Isotryptamines, or 2-(1-indolyl)ethylamines, are positional or geometric isomers of tryptamines where the aminoethyl substituent has been relocated from the indole 3-position to the N1-position. Early studies with these types of agents relied on peripheral tissue assays for examination of their serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) receptor affinities to investigate structure–affinity...
Nature Communications
August 3, 2026
Frederik Gudmundsen, Julia Czurylo, Daniel Ryskamp Rijsketic et al.
Serotonergic psychedelics show therapeutic potential across neuropsychiatric disorders despite transient acute effects. These compounds share serotonin 2 A receptor agonism but differ in broader pharmacology, motivating a systematic comparison of their neurobiological effects. Here, we use [18 F]FDG-PET in rats to assess acute and one-week effects of psilocybin, LSD, and 2C-B on brain metabolic...
TIPS - Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
August 1, 2026
Sofia Nasini, Benedetta Barzon, A. Casile et al.
Classic serotonergic psychedelics act primarily via 5-HT2A receptor agonism, yet their therapeutic effects and biological responses are heterogeneous. Biological sex remains an underexamined source of this variability because many clinical and preclinical studies have not been designed to test sex-by-treatment effects. Recent preclinical findings, together with more limited human evidence,...
Cell
August 1, 2026
Yating Wen, Lingjie Tang, Wenwen Duan et al.
Cancer remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. While classical psychedelics have been used clinically to treat cancer-associated psychiatric disorders, their impact on tumor progression is unclear. Here, we show that by targeting the serotonin receptor 5-HT2AR, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) enhances CD8+ T cell-mediated antitumor immunity and suppresses colorectal...
bioRxiv
July 23, 2026
William J. Tyler, E. Sellers, Michael B. McDonnell
preprint
Repeated low-dose psilocybin is being developed as a scalable outpatient treatment for mood and anxiety disorders, but chronic exposure raises concern because psilocin binds the cardiac serotonin 5-HT2B receptor, whose sustained agonism causes drug-induced valvular heart disease (VHD). We evaluated this risk using an exposure–response model that incorporates functional efficacy and exposure...