Hallucinogens repair the liver
A potentially new (and rather amazing) medicinal use for psychedelic drugs has been discovered, and the findings were reported in a recent edition of Science. For those of you who don't know, the peer-reviewed Science publication is one of the two most prestigious journals in the world.
I've summarized the full findings of the paper below the LJ cut.
In brief, certain psychedelic drugs (including LSD, DMT, AMT, DOB, and DOI) caused the FULL regrowth of the livers of mice who had small pieces of their livers removed surgically. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a non-psychiatric medical use of hallucinogens has been discovered.
If these findings can be extended to humans, the implications would be huge. I doubt that the psychedelics could never repair a severely damaged liver (alcoholism, hepatitis, etc). However, gradual and cumulative liver damage as a result of natural human aging could potentially be kept at bay with infrequent consumption of the appropriate psychedelic drugs.
Reference: Lesurtel, M., et. al, 2006. Platelet-Derived Serotonin Mediates Liver Regeneration. Science 312(5770):104-07.
Using mice, the researchers surgically removed a small portion of the animal's livers. Over time, the animals were able to regrow and regenerate the part of their liver that had been removed. Liver regrowth of this magnitude has been shown to occur before in most mammals including humans.
Then using new mice, the researchers once again removed a small portion of the animals liver. This time around, a drug was given to the mice which destroyed all their blood platelet cells. These cells had previously been discovered to be responsible for liver regrowth/regeneration. As expected, the livers of these mice did not grow back.
However, when the mice with destroyed platelets and damaged livers were fed the powerfully hallucinogenic drug DOI, their livers regrew identically to animals that still had living platelet cells.
Further investigation showed that it wasn't just DOI which caused the liver regrowth, but ANY psychedelic drug which binds to a 5HT2a/b serotonin receptor. Examples of other drugs which bind to this receptor include:
Serotonin (neurotransmitter); DMT, LSD, and AMT (tryptamines); and DOB, DOM, DOI (psychedelic amphetamines).
Interestingly enough, blood platelets are also the main reservoir and transporter of serotonin in the blood. The researchers were able to demonstrate that it's actually serotonin (and any drug that can bind to the serotonin receptor) that causes the liver regrowth rather than the blood platelets themselves.
I've summarized the full findings of the paper below the LJ cut.
In brief, certain psychedelic drugs (including LSD, DMT, AMT, DOB, and DOI) caused the FULL regrowth of the livers of mice who had small pieces of their livers removed surgically. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a non-psychiatric medical use of hallucinogens has been discovered.
If these findings can be extended to humans, the implications would be huge. I doubt that the psychedelics could never repair a severely damaged liver (alcoholism, hepatitis, etc). However, gradual and cumulative liver damage as a result of natural human aging could potentially be kept at bay with infrequent consumption of the appropriate psychedelic drugs.
Reference: Lesurtel, M., et. al, 2006. Platelet-Derived Serotonin Mediates Liver Regeneration. Science 312(5770):104-07.
Using mice, the researchers surgically removed a small portion of the animal's livers. Over time, the animals were able to regrow and regenerate the part of their liver that had been removed. Liver regrowth of this magnitude has been shown to occur before in most mammals including humans.
Then using new mice, the researchers once again removed a small portion of the animals liver. This time around, a drug was given to the mice which destroyed all their blood platelet cells. These cells had previously been discovered to be responsible for liver regrowth/regeneration. As expected, the livers of these mice did not grow back.
However, when the mice with destroyed platelets and damaged livers were fed the powerfully hallucinogenic drug DOI, their livers regrew identically to animals that still had living platelet cells.
Further investigation showed that it wasn't just DOI which caused the liver regrowth, but ANY psychedelic drug which binds to a 5HT2a/b serotonin receptor. Examples of other drugs which bind to this receptor include:
Serotonin (neurotransmitter); DMT, LSD, and AMT (tryptamines); and DOB, DOM, DOI (psychedelic amphetamines).
Interestingly enough, blood platelets are also the main reservoir and transporter of serotonin in the blood. The researchers were able to demonstrate that it's actually serotonin (and any drug that can bind to the serotonin receptor) that causes the liver regrowth rather than the blood platelets themselves.