I don't know if you've ever looked at a forest after a fire: where there was desolation before, over time new shoots start to sprout again. It's a bit like what happens to our brain when it's exposed to psychoplastogenic substances like LSD: new connections are created, circuits are regenerated. But there's a problem: LSD also causes intense hallucinations, making it unsuitable as a drug for serious pathologies like schizophrenia. At least, that was true until recently.
Now, a team of scientists has done what many thought was impossible: they have altered the structure of LSD, moving just two atoms, to create the JR, a compound which retains the regenerative properties of the original substance but eliminates the hallucinogenic effects. A discovery that could finally bring relief to millions of people with serious psychiatric disorders, until now excluded from the benefits of psychedelic therapies.
The Magic of Moving Atoms
Chemists at the University of California, Davis have achieved something bordering on molecular magic. They took the structure of LSD (which we all know as a powerful hallucinogen) and moved just two atoms around, creating an entirely new compound called JRT.
“Basically, what we did here is a tire rotation,” explains the professor David E. Olson, director of the Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics and a professor at UC Davis, lead author of the study.
“By moving just two atoms in LSD, we significantly improved the selectivity profile of JRT and reduced its hallucinogenic potential.”
This simple but ingenious modification has produced an extraordinary result: JRT retains all the beneficial properties of the original LSD on brain plasticity, but without causing the psychedelic effects. A true revolution in pharmaceutical sciences.
A brain that regenerates itself
The results were surprising: In tests on mice, a single dose of JRT increased the density of dendritic spines (the small protrusions that help neurons communicate with each other) by 46 percent and the number of synapses by 18 percent in the prefrontal cortex. These numbers reflect a dramatic growth in neural connections.
But the most fascinating part is that, unlike LSD, JRT did not produce hallucinogenic behavior in laboratory animals. It also did not trigger the expression of genes associated with schizophrenia, which is what happens with traditional LSD.
JRT, LSD's Cousin Is More Powerful Than Ketamine
For those who know the psychotropic drug sector, one fact is striking: JRT has produced powerful antidepressant effects, making it approximately 100 times more potent than ketamine, the rapid-acting antidepressant currently considered state of the art.
Come I told you last January, ketamine recently received FDA approval as a nasal spray for depression, paving the way for new generations of therapies, including psychedelics. JRT may be the next step in this therapeutic evolution, with even greater potential.
LSD 2.0, Hope for Schizophrenia Sufferers
Schizophrenia is one of the most debilitating and complex mental disorders to treat. Currently available medications often fail to improve symptoms such as anhedonia (the inability to experience pleasure) and cognitive deficits.
“No one really wants to give a hallucinogenic molecule like LSD to a patient with schizophrenia,” says Olson: “The development of JRT underscores that we can use psychedelics like LSD as starting points to create better drugs.”
The long road to approval
Creating JRT was no easy feat. It took the team nearly five years to complete the 12-step synthesis process. The molecule is named after Jeremy R. Tuck, a former student in Olson's lab, who was the first to synthesize it.
This discovery is part of a renewed interest in psychedelic therapies which, like also documented by Futuro Prossimo, has seen the opening of dedicated research centres in recent years, such as the one inaugurated in London in 2019 under the leadership of the well-known researcher Robin Carhart-Harris.
Other psychedelic substances also show promising effects on neurogenesis: always us We reported how DMT, another powerful psychedelic, promotes the creation of new brain cells and improves memory and cognitive abilities.
JRT is still a long way from clinical approval, but the initial results are promising. This molecule represents the future of psychedelic therapies without the psychedelic effects.
This discovery reminds us that sometimes the solution to complex problems can be hidden in simple tweaks to what we already know. And for millions of people suffering from serious mental disorders, that solution may be within reach, in the form of a molecule that heals without getting you high.
