A non-hallucinogenic psychedelic analogue with therapeutic potential.

The psychedelic alkaloid ibogaine has anti-addictive properties in both humans and animals1. Unlike most medications for the treatment of substance use disorders, anecdotal reports suggest that ibogaine has the potential to treat addiction to various substances, including opiates, alcohol and psychostimulants. The effects of ibogaine-like those of other psychedelic compounds-are long-lasting2, which has been attributed to its ability to modify addiction-related neural circuitry through the activation of neurotrophic factor signalling3,4. However, several safety concerns have hindered the clinical development of ibogaine, including its toxicity, hallucinogenic potential and tendency to induce cardiac arrhythmias. Here we apply the principles of function-oriented synthesis to identify the key structural elements of the potential therapeutic pharmacophore of ibogaine, and we use this information to engineer tabernanthalog-a water-soluble, non-hallucinogenic, non-toxic analogue of ibogaine that can be prepared in a single step. In rodents, tabernanthalog was found to promote structural neural plasticity, reduce alcohol- and heroin-seeking behaviour, and produce antidepressant-like effects. This work demonstrates that, through careful chemical design, it is possible to modify a psychedelic compound to produce a safer, non-hallucinogenic variant that has therapeutic potential.

Calculated oxidation potentials predict reactivity in Baeyer-Mills reactions.

Azobenzenes are widely used as dyes and photochromic compounds, with the Baeyer-Mills reaction serving as the most common method for their preparation. This transformation is often plagued by low yields due to the formation of undesired azoxybenzene. Here, we explore electronic effects dictating the formation of the azoxybenzene side-product. Using calculated oxidation potentials, we were able to predict reaction outcomes and improve reaction efficiency simply by modulating the oxidation potential of the arylamine component.

Reconsidering the Structure of Serlyticin-A.

Serlyticin-A is a secondary metabolite first isolated from a culture of Serratia ureilytica grown using squid pen as the sole carbon/nitrogen source. A previous study by Kuo et al. demonstrated that it has antioxidative and antiproliferative properties. However, the proposed chemical structure of serlyticin-A is likely incorrect based on the thermodynamic instability of its three contiguous heteroatom-heteroatom bonds. Here, we use quantum chemical calculations to predict 1H and 13C chemical shifts for serlyticin-A and demonstrate a discrepancy between the calculated and experimental chemical shifts. We then propose several reasonable alternative structures for serlyticin-A. Considering the known antioxidant and antiproliferative activity of hydroxamic acids as well as their stability and prevalence in natural products of bacterial origin, we believe that serlyticin-A is most likely 3-indolylacetohydroxamic acid (4). We provide our rationale for this assignment as well as experimental data for pure 3-indolylacetohydroxamic acid obtained via de novo synthesis. This study highlights the power of computational NMR shift prediction to revise chemical structures for natural products like serlyticin-A.

Psychoplastogenic DYRK1A Inhibitors with Therapeutic Effects Relevant to Alzheimer's Disease.

Tauopathy, neuronal atrophy, and psychological impairments are hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, that currently lack efficacious clinical treatments capable of rectifying these issues. To address these unmet needs, we used rational drug design to combine the pharmacophores of DYRK1A inhibitors and isoDMTs to develop psychoplastogenic DYRK1A inhibitors. Using this approach, we discovered a nonhallucinogenic compound capable of promoting cortical neuron growth and suppressing tau hyperphosphorylation while also having the potential to mitigate the biological and psychological symptoms of dementia. Together, our results suggest that hybridization of the DYRK1A and psychoplastogen pharmacophores represents a promising strategy for identifying compounds that might address the cognitive as well as the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.

Developmental Neurotoxicity Screen of Psychedelics and Other Drugs of Abuse in Larval Zebrafish (Danio rerio).

In recent years, psychedelics have garnered significant interest as therapeutic agents for treating diverse neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the potential for these compounds to produce developmental neurotoxicity has not been rigorously assessed, and much of the available safety data is based on epidemiological studies with limited experimental testing in laboratory animal models. Moreover, the experimental safety data available thus far have focused on adult organisms, and the few studies conducted using developing organisms have tested a limited number of compounds, precluding direct comparisons between various chemical scaffolds. In the present study, 13 psychoactive compounds of different chemical or pharmacological classes were screened in a larval zebrafish model for teratological and behavioral abnormalities following acute and chronic developmental exposures. We found that the psychedelic tryptamines and ketamine were less neurotoxic to larval zebrafish than LSD and psychostimulants. Our work, which leverages the advantage of using zebrafish for higher throughput toxicity screening, provides a robust reference database for comparing the neurotoxicity profiles of novel psychedelics currently under development for therapeutic applications.

Psychedelics promote neuroplasticity through the activation of intracellular 5-HT2A receptors.

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.

A Modular Approach to Arylazo-1,2,3-triazole Photoswitches.

Azoheteroarenes make up an emerging class of photoswitchable compounds with unique photophysical properties and advantages over traditional azobenzenes. Therefore, methods for synthesizing azoheteroarenes are highly desirable. Here, we utilize azide-alkyne click chemistry to access arylazo-1,2,3-triazoles, a previously unexplored class of azoheteroarenes that exhibit high thermal stabilities and near-quantitative bidirectional photoconversion. Controlling the catalyst or 1,3-dipole grants access to both regioisomeric arylazotriazoles and arylazoisoxazoles, highlighting the versatility of our approach.

Identification of Psychoplastogenic N,N-Dimethylaminoisotryptamine (isoDMT) Analogues through Structure-Activity Relationship Studies.

Ketamine, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and other psychoplastogens possess enormous potential as neurotherapeutics due to their ability to potently promote neuronal growth. Here, we report the first-ever structure-activity relationship study with the explicit goal of identifying novel psychoplastogens. We have discovered several key features of the psychoplastogenic pharmacophore and used this information to develop N,N-dimethylaminoisotryptamine (isoDMT) psychoplastogens that are easier to synthesize, have improved physicochemical properties, and possess reduced hallucinogenic potential as compared to their DMT counterparts.

Ex Vivo Analysis of Tryptophan Metabolism Using 19F NMR.

Tryptophan, an essential amino acid, is metabolized into a variety of small molecules capable of impacting human physiology, and aberrant tryptophan metabolism has been linked to a number of diseases. There are three principal routes by which tryptophan is degraded, and thus methods for measuring metabolic flux through these pathways can be used to understand the factors that perturb tryptophan metabolism and potentially to measure disease biomarkers. Here, we describe a method utilizing 6-fluorotryptophan as a probe for detecting tryptophan metabolites in ex vivo tissue samples via 19F nuclear magnetic resonance. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate that 6-fluorotryptophan can be used to measure changes in tryptophan metabolism resulting from antibiotic-induced changes in gut microbiota composition. Taken together, we describe a general strategy for monitoring amino acid metabolism using 19F nuclear magnetic resonance that is operationally simple and does not require chromatographic separation of metabolites.

A Redox Isomerization Strategy for Accessing Modular Azobenzene Photoswitches with Near Quantitative Bidirectional Photoconversion.

Photoswitches capable of accessing two geometric states are highly desirable, especially if their design is modular and incorporates a pharmacophore tethering site. We describe a redox isomerization strategy for synthesizing p-formylazobenzenes from p-nitrobenzyl alcohol. The resulting azo-aldehydes can be readily converted to photoswitchable compounds with excellent photophysical properties using simple hydrazide click chemistry. As a proof of principle, we synthesized a photoswitchable surfactant enabling the photocontrol of an emulsion with exceptionally high spatiotemporal precision.