Researchers hope to develop a treatment for depression by activating the same receptors found in psychedelics like LSD… but without the hallucinations that come with it.
- Of natural origin (ayahuasca, peyote, mushrooms, mescaline) or synthetic (LSD, MDMA), psychedelics induce altered states of consciousness with greatly amplified and disorganized sensory acuity. They are increasingly used in the psychiatric field to treat depression.
- In France, one in ten people has already experienced a depressive episode characterized during the last twelve months, according to Public Health France.
Will derivatives of psychedelics be the antidepressants of tomorrow? Recent studies have already shown that psychedelics, such as psilocybin from “magic” mushrooms or MDMA, may have long-term benefits for treating depression and anxiety. Problem: at high doses, these molecules have a powerful hallucinatory effect, which can be disturbing for the person.
A team of scientists now thinks they have found a remedy for this undesirable effect: a psychedelic derivative that acts as an anxiolytic, but without causing the hallucinations that usually go with the trip.
Molecules that activate the same receptors as LSD
To achieve these results, recently published in the journal Nature, researchers from several American universities have spent years studying a computer library of 75 million molecules. They discovered that some of them were able to activate the same central nervous system receptors that are targeted by psychedelics like LSD: the 5HT2a receptors. “Receivers are like antennae, says Professor Brian Shoichet, one of the authors of the study, in a communicated. They pick up a chemical signal and downstream a lot of things are activated in the cells.”
According to the study, and this is where it gets interesting, these 5HT2a receptors can trigger two effects, two different pathways, the hallucinatory pathway and the antidepressant pathway. But, unlike LSD which targets the first pathway more, the new molecules activate the second much more. In other words, no more hallucinations, there is only the anxiolytic effect.
Potent antidepressant effects on mice
And the laboratory tests would be conclusive: according to the researchers, a single dose of these new compounds produced powerful antidepressant and anxiolytic effects on mice for up to two weeks, without any hallucinations.
With this new discovery, researchers hope to one day be able to conduct clinical trials and develop new treatments for depression, knowing that current antidepressants prove ineffective for many patients and cause unwanted side effects.
