Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Viale Europa 11, 25123 Brescia, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jan 10;24(2):1329. doi: 10.3390/ijms24021329.
The need to identify effective therapies for the treatment of psychiatric disorders is a particularly important issue in modern societies. In addition, difficulties in finding new drugs have led pharmacologists to review and re-evaluate some past molecules, including psychedelics. For several years there has been growing interest among psychotherapists in psilocybin or lysergic acid diethylamide for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder, of depression, or of post-traumatic stress disorder, although results are not always clear and definitive. In fact, the mechanisms of action of psychedelics are not yet fully understood and some molecular aspects have yet to be well defined. Thus, this review aims to summarize the ethnobotanical uses of the best-known psychedelic plants and the pharmacological mechanisms of the main active ingredients they contain. Furthermore, an up-to-date overview of structural and computational studies performed to evaluate the affinity and binding modes to biologically relevant receptors of ibogaine, mescaline, N,N-dimethyltryptamine, psilocin, and lysergic acid diethylamide is presented. Finally, the most recent clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of psychedelic molecules in some psychiatric disorders are discussed and compared with drugs already used in therapy.
在现代社会，确定治疗精神疾病的有效疗法是一个特别重要的问题。此外，由于难以找到新的药物，药理学家开始重新审查和评估一些过去的分子，包括迷幻剂。几年来，精神治疗师对迷幻蘑菇或麦角酸二乙酰胺治疗强迫症、抑郁症或创伤后应激障碍越来越感兴趣，尽管结果并不总是明确和确定的。事实上，迷幻剂的作用机制尚未完全阐明，一些分子方面仍有待很好地定义。因此，本综述旨在总结最著名的迷幻植物的民族植物学用途以及它们所含的主要活性成分的药理学机制。此外，还介绍了为评估伊博加因、三甲氧苯乙胺、N,N-二甲基色胺、二甲色胺和麦角酸二乙酰胺对生物相关受体的亲和力和结合模式而进行的结构和计算研究的最新概述。最后，讨论了评估迷幻分子在一些精神疾病中的疗效的最新临床研究，并将其与已用于治疗的药物进行了比较。
