AI Article Synopsis
- Decreased dendritic spine density in the brain is linked to mental health issues, and psychedelics might help brain cells grow stronger.
- Scientists found that a special receptor in the brain, called 5-HT2AR, is really important for how psychedelics change brain connections, but not all drugs that affect this receptor work the same way.
- They discovered that the 5-HT2ARs inside brain cells might be the key to these changes, suggesting new ways to treat brain problems and hinting that serotonin might not be the usual signal for these receptors.
Article Abstract
Decreased dendritic spine density in the cortex is a hallmark of several neuropsychiatric diseases, and the ability to promote cortical neuron growth has been hypothesized to underlie the rapid and sustained therapeutic effects of psychedelics. Activation of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) 2A receptors (5-HT2ARs) is essential for psychedelic-induced cortical plasticity, but it is currently unclear why some 5-HT2AR agonists promote neuroplasticity, whereas others do not. We used molecular and genetic tools to demonstrate that intracellular 5-HT2ARs mediate the plasticity-promoting properties of psychedelics; these results explain why serotonin does not engage similar plasticity mechanisms. This work emphasizes the role of location bias in 5-HT2AR signaling, identifies intracellular 5-HT2ARs as a therapeutic target, and raises the intriguing possibility that serotonin might not be the endogenous ligand for intracellular 5-HT2ARs in the cortex.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10108900 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adf0435 | DOI Listing |
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