Correction: Simão, A.Y., et al. Evaluation of the Cytotoxicity of Ayahuasca Beverages. Molecules 2020, 25, 5594

Ischemic eye diseases are major causes of vision impairment. Thus, potential retinoprotective effects of N’N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) were investigated. To inhibit its rapid breakdown by monoamine-oxidase A (MAO-A) enzyme, DMT was co-administered with harmaline, a β-carboline in the Amazonian Ayahuasca brew. Using ligation, 60 min of ischemia was provoked in eyes of rats, followed by 7 days of reperfusion whilst animals received harmaline alone, DMT + harmaline, or vehicle treatment. After 1 week of reperfusion, electroretinographical (ERG) measurements, histological analysis, and Western blot were performed. Harmaline alone exhibited retinoprotection in ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) which was, surprisingly, counterbalanced by DMT in case of co-administration. As both MAO-A inhibition and DMT increase serotoninergic tone synergistically, communicated to be anti-ischemic, thus, involvement of other pathways was investigated. Based on our experiments, DMT and harmaline exert opposite effects on important ocular proteins such as PARP1, NFκB, MMP9, or HSP70, each having a critical role in a different mechanism of eye-ischemia-related pathologies, e.g., cell death, inflammation, tissue destruction, and oxidative stress. Since DMT is proclaimed to be a promising drug candidate, its potentially undesirable effect on eye-ischemia should be further investigated. Meanwhile, this experiment revealed the potential therapeutic effect of MAO-A inhibitor harmaline in I/R-related eye diseases.

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Therapeutic Properties of Ayahuasca Components in Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury of the Eye

Szilagyi

Takacs

Szekeres

et al. 2022

Biomedicines

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An Update on the Implications of New Psychoactive Substances in Public Health

Simão

Antunes

Cabral

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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The emergence of new psychoactive substances has earned a great deal of attention, and several reports of acute poisoning and deaths have been issued involving, for instance, synthetic opiates. In recent years, there have been profound alterations in the legislation concerning consumption, marketing, and synthesis of these compounds; rapid alert systems have also been subject to changes, and new substances and new markets, mainly through the internet, have appeared. Their effects and how they originate in consumers are still mostly unknown, primarily in what concerns chronic toxicity. This review intends to provide a detailed description of these substances from the point of view of consumption, toxicokinetics, and health consequences, including case reports on intoxications in order to help researchers and public health agents working daily in this area.

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Impact of Two Neuronal Sigma-1 Receptor Modulators, PRE084 and DMT, on Neurogenesis and Neuroinflammation in an Aβ1–42-Injected, Wild-Type Mouse Model of AD

Borbély

Varga

Szögi

et al. 2022

IJMS

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia characterized by cognitive dysfunctions. Pharmacological interventions to slow the progression of AD are intensively studied. A potential direction targets neuronal sigma-1 receptors (S1Rs). S1R ligands are recognized as promising therapeutic agents that may alleviate symptom severity of AD, possibly via preventing amyloid-β-(Aβ-) induced neurotoxicity on the endoplasmic reticulum stress-associated pathways. Furthermore, S1Rs may also modulate adult neurogenesis, and the impairment of this process is reported to be associated with AD. We aimed to investigate the effects of two S1R agonists, dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and PRE084, in an Aβ-induced in vivo mouse model characterizing neurogenic and anti-neuroinflammatory symptoms of AD, and the modulatory effects of S1R agonists were analyzed by immunohistochemical methods and western blotting. DMT, binding moderately to S1R but with high affinity to 5-HT receptors, negatively influenced neurogenesis, possibly as a result of activating both receptors differently. In contrast, the highly selective S1R agonist PRE084 stimulated hippocampal cell proliferation and differentiation. Regarding neuroinflammation, DMT and PRE084 significantly reduced Aβ1-42-induced astrogliosis, but neither had remarkable effects on microglial activation. In summary, the highly selective S1R agonist PRE084 may be a promising therapeutic agent for AD. Further studies are required to clarify the multifaceted neurogenic and anti-neuroinflammatory roles of these agonists.

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Correction: Simão, A.Y., et al. Evaluation of the Cytotoxicity of Ayahuasca Beverages. Molecules 2020, 25, 5594

Abstract: This paper [...]

Cited by 7 publications

References 1 publication

Therapeutic Properties of Ayahuasca Components in Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury of the Eye

Therapeutic Properties of Ayahuasca Components in Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury of the Eye

An Update on the Implications of New Psychoactive Substances in Public Health

Impact of Two Neuronal Sigma-1 Receptor Modulators, PRE084 and DMT, on Neurogenesis and Neuroinflammation in an Aβ1–42-Injected, Wild-Type Mouse Model of AD

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