The most basic assumption about how psychedelic medicine works is at least partially flawed: Psychedelics are altering not just a few specific brain cells, but the vast majority of them, according to a new University of Michigan study.
The research, funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, shows that even neurons without serotonin 2A receptors—which are important for physiological processes, including mood regulation, perception and cognitive functions—can dramatically benefit from psychedelic compounds. This means that the therapeutic use of psychedelic medicine is far broader than currently appreciated, with important implications for Alzheimer’s disease and PTSD.
“We identified brain regions where most neurons are completely lacking serotonin 2A receptors. Surprisingly, psychedelic treatment was still able to strongly boost connectivity onto these neurons,” said the study’s senior author Omar Ahmed, U-M professor of psychology whose lab studies behavioral neural circuits and attempts to repair them when they go awry in specific disorders.
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Ahmed’s lab, including co-first authors Tyler Ekins and Chloe Rybicki-Kler, showed that the retrosplenial cortex—a brain region important for memory, orientation and even imagining oneself in the future—was remarkably devoid of these receptors. The retrosplenial cortex is one of the first brain regions to be impaired in Alzheimer’s disease.
The team then recorded from these neurons lacking serotonin 2A receptors and found that they also show robust neuroplasticity (more synapses) after psychedelic treatment.
“The most successful medicines are those where we fully understand how they work. That is why it is so important to understand the fundamentals of how psychedelic medicine actually works,” Ahmed said.
The study appears in the latest issue of Molecular Psychiatry. Other authors included Tao Deng, Isla Brooks, Izabela Jedrasiak-Cape and Ethan Donoho, all members of Ahmed’s lab.
Read the complete article in Michigan News
