Psychedelics have potential to treat psychiatric, neurodegenerative disorders: Study

A recent research from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, shows that a serotonin receptor in brain cells exhibits altered behaviour which contributes to increasing the person’s vulnerability to psychiatric disorders in adulthood in individuals who go through stress and trauma in early life. 

The researchers also found that psychedelic substances can potentially be modified to target this particular receptor for treating mood disorders or even neurodegenerative
diseases.

Prof Vidita Vaidya, chairperson of the Biological Sciences Department at TIFR who led the study, was recently awarded the Infosys Prize by the Infosys Science Foundation for this work.

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“Early adversity or stress is a risk factor across all psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia and substance abuse. So, using rodents, we explored what changes early stress causes in the brain and which of these changes contributes to enhanced vulnerability,” says Prof Vaidya.

The team found that even mild early stressors substantially enhanced the functioning of the serotonin 2A receptor in the brain cortex. “The receptor didn’t function normally in the rodents even many months later, which is almost half their lifetime,” says Prof Vaidya. Also, when the signalling through this receptor was tweaked in the adult rodents, it reproduced behavioural changes similar to what they exhibited under early stress.

Several major drugs already target 2A receptors to treat conditions, like schizophrenia and depression. But the researchers found that serotonergic psychedelics (psychedelics that act on the 2A receptor) directly improve the production of energy in neurons as well as buffer cellular stress.

“When you age, the cumulative stress on nerve cells is quite high. This has a role in neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. So, a drug targeted to the serotonin 2A receptor could offer preventive or treatment options for these disorders,” says Prof Vaidya. Such drugs could potentially treat mood disorders like depression and anxiety too.

Psychedelic drugs were used by traditional healers in ancient cultures, and currently research on them is happening in several countries. In India, there’s no research yet due to legal constraints. “These are extremely potent molecules. The components of these molecules need to be understood, and those producing adverse effects need to be reduced while those causing the required effects are retained,” says
Prof Vaidya.