Are reversible the neurotoxic effects of synthetic drugs?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20882/adicciones.347Keywords:
Neurotoxicity, serotonin, dopamine, MDMA, MDA, methamphetamine, substituted amphetamines, amphetamine derivatives, neurodegeneration, reinnervationAbstract
It is clear from animal studies that substituted amphetamines have neurotoxic effects. Preclinical works have shown that amphetamine derivatives have two sort of effects: immediate and reversible, and prolonged and irreversible. The immediate effect of substituted amphetamine intake is an increment of extracellular levels of serotonin and dopamine that return to normality in about 6 h and may produce an augmentation of corporal temperature. However, this reversible effect is followed by other long lasting that usually occurs in the period between 24 h and one week. In this case, damage in serotonergic neurons appears, involving reuptake proteins and fine axon terminals, that are persistently lost. The mechanisms that might cause these neurotoxic effects are unknown, but it seems that an increment in cellular oxidative systems may have a role. Animal studies have also shown that an enduring cessation of amphetamine derivatives intake results in a progressive serotonergic re-innervation, but with a pattern that is different from the previously established during the normal development. Although we don’t know if such re-innervation process may develop in human beings, is tempting to speculate that it will occur given that it happens in non-human primates. The behavioural consequences of serotonergic system damage and the hypothetical re-innervation process in humans are also unknown. However, they might be related to several behavioural malfunctions such as anxiety, depression or memory impairments that former amphetamine derivatives users exhibit in the span of their lives.References
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