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Mystical States achieved through Psychedelics: The Origins, Classical, and Contemporary Use of Psychedelics
Published in Andrew C. Papanicolaou, A Scientific Assessment of the Validity of Mystical Experiences, 2021
On the basis of their chemical structure, the classic psychedelics are divided into two classes. The one includes drugs with a chemical structure like that of tryptamine. Among the drugs in this class are the synthesized psychedelic LSD, psilocybin, and dimethyltryptamine or DMT, which is found in ayahuasca, a psychotropic concoction used ritually in South America. The second category includes substances with a chemical structure similar to phenethylamine. Mescaline, the main psychoactive agent in the peyote (Lophophora williamsii), and other cacti, is the best-known psychedelic of that class. This class includes also several synthesized compounds. The cactus Peyote has been used for millennia by several Mexican Indian tribes including the Chichimeca, Huichol, and Tarahumara tribes, for therapeutic and religious purposes9 and it continues to be used today as a sacrament by the Native American Church to be recounted below.
Diseases of the Nervous System
Published in George Feuer, Felix A. de la Iglesia, Molecular Biochemistry of Human Disease, 2020
George Feuer, Felix A. de la Iglesia
Large doses of tryptophan potentiate the antidepressant action of monoamine oxidase inhibitors; it may be effective alone. This action is likely the result of increased levels of tryptamine caused by the inhibition of monoamine oxidase activity. Tryptamine produces central excitation and seizures probably by displacing serotonin in serotonergic neurones. The successes of tryptophan therapy is probably due to the correction of tryptamine deficiency in the brain. Depression is also linked with an increase of tryptophan pyrrolase activity related to an increased adrenocortical activity. The metabolism of indoles and tryptophan may be involved in the course of affective diseases, the correlation with one phase of mood or the other is, however, apparent.
Hormones of the Moss Protonema
Published in R. N. Chopra, Satish C. Bhatla, Bryophyte Development: Physiology and Biochemistry, 2019
In contrast to the hypothesis of Cove and Ashton,2 experiments with “auxin-resistant” mutants of F. hygrometrica (NAR) indicate another way to reduce the endogenous auxin content. The Funaria mutants were selected in the same way as the Physcomitrella mutants, on a substrate with a high concentration of NAA (5 to 50 μM). The most clearly defined mutant, NAR-2, behaves as a type 4 mutant of P. patens; NAR-4 and -5 resemble the type 5 to 7 mutants.2 The development of NAR-2 can be normalized by a supplement of about 0.1 to 1 μM IAA, α-NAA, or 2,4-D. The precursors indicated in Figure 5 induce the formation of caulonemata, which have the ability to form buds after kinetin treatment (Table 2). Only tryptamine has no significant effect, similar to observations in the wild-type under LLI conditions.38 Therefore, a block in the biosynthetic pathway between tryptophan and IAA could not have caused the auxin deficiency. A reduced sensitivity in the mutants can be excluded by the experiments because the effective concentrations are the same for the mutant NAR-2 and the wild-type in LLI. These are the reasons for assuming that the auxin requirement is due to an enhanced degradation of auxin in the protonema as was demonstrated recently by Atzorn et al.121 using an auxin ELISA test.
A comprehensive study on the relieving effect of Lilium brownii on the intestinal flora and metabolic disorder in p-chlorphenylalanine induced insomnia rats
Published in Pharmaceutical Biology, 2022
Yanpo Si, Wenjun Wei, Xiaohui Chen, Xiaolong Xie, Tao Guo, Yohei Sasaki, Youbo Zhang, Lili Wang, Fei Zhang, Shuying Feng
Compared with the PCPA group, 33 and 66 metabolites were upregulated and downregulated in the LB group, respectively (Figure 7(D)). Among these differential metabolites, a total of 37 metabolites returned to a healthy level after LB intervention (Table 1). The KEGG pathway analysis of metabolites in the LB group showed that the tryptophan metabolic pathway, as well as arachidonic acid metabolic pathway highly associated with insomnia, were mainly adjusted (Figure 8(B)). Insomnia is known to cause disorders in tryptophan metabolism (Bhat et al. 2020). It can be seen from the results of differential metabolites that the tryptamine in the PCPA group was significantly reduced, while the N-γ-acetyl-N-2-formyl-5-methoxykynurenamine (AFMK), as the enzymatic degradation production of 5-HT, was elevated. To our knowledge, tryptamine, as a tryptophan catabolite produced by the gut microbiota, is a β-arylamine neurotransmitter, which is generated by l-tryptophan through the action of pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent decarboxylases (Williams et al. 2014). Tryptamine, structurally related to serotonin, can be a precursor of the neurotransmitter 5-HT and likely binds to the same site(s) (Mousseau and Butterworth 1994).
Studies of xenobiotic-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis: from correlation to mechanisms
Published in Gut Microbes, 2021
Liang Chi, Pengcheng Tu, Hongyu Ru, Kun Lu
Gut microbiota also can metabolize tryptophan to different neurotransmitters, such as tryptamine and serotonin.144,145 Tryptamine is a product of tryptophan catabolism functioning as a β-arylamine neurotransmitter. Clostridium sporogenes-produced tryptamine by decarboxylating tryptophan induces ion secretion in intestinal epithelial cells which could affect gastrointestinal motility.145 Likewise, another study demonstrated that tryptamine could activate GPCR serotonin receptor-4 to promote fluid secretion and accelerate gut transit.146 Serotonin is another key neurotransmitter in the gut-brain-axis.144 A previous study demonstrated that indigenous spore-forming bacteria in gut microbiota promoted serotonin biosynthesis in colonic enterochromaffin cells, which increased the gastrointestinal motility and enhanced platelet activation and aggregation.147 The gut microbiota-regulated peripheral serotonin synthesis plays a mediatory role in host glucose homeostasis.148 However, how microbiota-derived serotonin affecting neuron system is still largely unclear.
Use of Benefit Enhancement Strategies among 5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) Users: Associations with Mystical, Challenging, and Enduring Effects
Published in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2020
Rafael L. Lancelotta, Alan K. Davis
Despite these reported benefits, tryptamine use has also been associated with physical, cognitive, and emotional risks (Leonard, Anderson, and Klein-Schwartz 2018). For example, in 2016, there were 338 exposures reported to Poison Control Centers associated with psilocybin-containing mushrooms (Gummin, 2016). Although this is in stark contrast to the large number of reported exposures from analgesics (184,255), sedative/hypnotics/antipsychotics (55,314), and antidepressants (51,509) (Gummin, 2016), the possible negative effects of tryptamine exposure included challenging experiences such as agitation and tachycardia, with infrequent reports of hyperthermia, seizures, coma, increased serum creatinine, and life-threatening experiences such as cardiac arrest, and possible death (Leonard, Anderson, and Klein-Schwartz 2018; Sklerov et al. 2005).