YPSG presents Charles Nichols: Anti-inflammatory and antidepressant effects of psychedelics скачать в хорошем качестве

YPSG presents Charles Nichols: Anti-inflammatory and antidepressant effects of psychedelics

Psychedelics represent a new and emerging class of therapeutics for psychiatric diseases such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorder, among others. Additionally, psychedelics are potent anti-inflammatory agents. The mechanisms underlying these therapeutic effects remain unknown. Preclinical models of asthma and cardiovascular disease have been utilized to investigate anti-inflammatory effects of psychedelics, and have shown potent effects on several aspects of immune system modulation from suppression of proinflammatory cytokines to inhibition of T-cell activation and recruitment. Our data suggest that sub-behavioural levels of certain psychedelics represents a new, steroid-sparing, small molecule strategy for the treatment of peripheral inflammatory related diseases. On the psychiatric front, we have developed a new rat experimental system that recapitulates the long-lasting antidepressant-like effects of psilocybin. In this system, a single administration of psilocybin leads to persistent normalization of stress-induced hippocampal dysfunction relevant to depression and other psychiatric conditions. Speaker Bio: Dr. Charles Nichols earned his BS at Purdue University, his PhD at Carnegie Mellon University studying developmental neurogenetics in Drosophila melanogaster, and performed his postdoctoral work at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology, researching mammalian serotonin 5-HT2 receptor neuropharmacology. His research has focused on 5-HT2A receptors and psychedelics for the past 24 years, where he has made several key discoveries. These include identification of specific populations of cell types within the brain that directly respond to psychedelics, the development of animal models to study the antidepressant-like effects of psilocybin, and discovery of the potent anti-inflammatory effects of psychedelics. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.