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Zunaira Ali
Once labelled peril and illegal, psychedelic drugs are fueling a mental health renaissance. This recreational drug has the capacity to mend patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. And in that, neuroinflammation might be the actual target! Researchers are connecting the dots about whether lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin aka magical mushrooms modulate early signs of Alzheimer’s patients or not.
Alzheimer’s disease is a rapid cause of concern because globally every four seconds people are diagnosed with it. Of course, this horrendous disease didn’t just disappear in a day_ but yes it eases the path of Alzheimer’s disease treatment as per the saying of Dr Albert Garcia-Romeu and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins University.
Unraveling the Inside of an Alzheimer’s patient brain
One of the main reasons for this mental affliction is ageing or neurodegeneration _ the deterioration of brain cells. This isn’t just all because the contributing factors of Alzheimer's disease are intricate. Although genetic variants have been discovered to correspond with it, they cannot account for all cases of the disease in the general populace. Aside from mutations, factors such as intake of processed-food diets, inadequate physical activity, smoking, and excessive drinking have all been identified as risk factors.
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Such type of patient illustrates visible irregularities in the brain’s structure in the form of misfolded proteins called plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The crystallization of clumps is the sole reason for disruption in signalling making Alzheimer's worse.
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And because they formed in the hippocampus region _ which oversees the creation of memories, the initial markers of Alzheimer's are short-term memory loss and difficulty in learning. During the last decade, it has become obvious that Alzheimer's patient’s brains have a long-term inflammatory response caused by Microglia. These are the brain's "cleaning" cells, which scour the brain for any signs of damaged cells, infectious agents, tangles, or plaques.
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They emit a variety of compounds that serve as inflammatory signals to the rest of the immune system and attract more cleaning cells to plaque sites which is an inflammation response. These issues have their effects on the brain and therefore people who are dealing with brain-based issues display significant signs of clinical depression.
Bridging between Psychedelics and Alzheimer
The survey of Johns Hopkins University is looking for volunteers to see if high-dose psilocybin can help individuals with early Alzheimer's disease with depression — or, as a secondary endpoint, memory, and cognition.
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In December 2019, its Phase 1 trial was published in the journal Psychopharmacology by the psychedelic medicine company Eleusis with notable contributors Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College London. That survey showed the drug's efficacy to treat neuroinflammation linked to neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's.
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They're building on the outcomes of a Phase I trial, which revealed that repeated microdosing (21 non-consecutive days) is well tolerated in healthy volunteers with minimal side effects. Eleusis has advanced to Phase II, where they are examining the effects of LSD Microdoses on Alzheimer's patients.
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In 2020 Vann Jones and O’Kelly published an article, performing a rigorous evaluation of the evidence by relating psychedelics to dementia and eventually Alzheimer's. They found some long-term effects of microdosing psilocybin and LSD. Their epidemiological study of 89 recreational microdosing psychedelics discovered an improvement across multiple psychological domains, including inventiveness and vigilance, with sustained improvement over 6 weeks. This implies that LSD and psilocybin can improve recall and vividness of pertinent life memories, a possibly relevant mechanism for Alzheimer's disease treatment.
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After years of multiple failures in dementia treatments, researchers have seen the propensity of psychedelic compounds to enhance functional neuronal connectivity, stimulate neurogenesis, reinstate brain plasticity, decrease inflammation, and improve cognition. It provides a new therapeutic target and a compelling argument for further research into the psychedelics arena as a disease-modifying compound.
Three main learnings of psychedelic psychotherapy
First and foremost, the 5HT-2A receptor agonists decrease inflammation by exacerbating cellular stress and altering the functioning microglia that emit pro-inflammatory substances. And because psychedelics are serotonergic drugs, they interact with serotonin 5HT-2A receptors and diminish the inflammation of the brain.
Second, psychedelics impact the neurogenesis and neuroplasticity of the brain which was disrupted due to the loss of neurons. Clinical trials show that Psychedelic drugs augment neural connectivity i.e., upsurge the connection with other neurons.
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Third, psychedelics advance the learning mechanism. On this matter, the researchers have more to study but many users of persistent microdose psychedelics claim that this practice increases their memory.
The Bottom Line
There are obviously more steps ahead to be taken but till now there are some researches that showed that Alzheimer’s patient still has hope. We just need to pace our tri-dimensional approach_ biological, psychological, and cognitive, towards this disease with a focus on psychedelic drugs and their further assistance to fight Alzheimer’s disease.