Browsing by Subject "25CN-NBOH"

Faculty: Faculty of Medicine Degree programme: Master of Science in Psychology Subject: Psychology Author: Kati Kajander Title: Breaking the chains of compulsion - A preclinical study of the effects of LSD, Psilocybin and 25CN-NBOH on compulsive-like behavior in mice Level: Master’s thesis Month and year: April 2023 Number of pages: 22 Key words: 25CN-NBOH, compulsion, compulsive behavior, hallucinogens, LSD, pharmacology, preclinical, psilocybin, psychedelics, psychology Supervisors: Teemu Aitta-aho and Markus Jokela Where deposited: Library of University of Helsinki Additional information: This study has been done as an interdisciplinary project involving the departments of pharmacology and psychology Abstract Goals: The present study examined how the administration of psychedelic substances to mice affected their compulsive behavior. The main study questions were: A) how do psychedelics impact the compulsive behavior in mice, B) is there a lasting effect of psychedelics shown in repeated trials over 12 days, and C) are the associations different for psychedelics that influence different 5-HT2 receptors? I hypothesized that I) administration of psychedelics decreases compulsive behavior, II) the effects of psychedelics will produce long-term effects observable across several days, and III) 5-HT2A agonism is a necessary but not sufficient process in inducing the effects of psychedelics. Methods: The compulsive behavior of the mice was operationalized with the marble burying test by examining the number of marbles buried in an experimental setting. There were 20 marbles to be buried in each trial and the duration of each trial was 15 minutes. A total of 32 mice were divided into 4 groups (8 mice per group) who received either saline (control), LSD, 25CN-NBOH, or psilocybin on the treatment day. All the mice were male and from the mouse strain C57BL/6. Experiments were carried out on five days over a 12-day period: on day 1 all mice received saline, on day 2 the mice were divided into the four groups and received their treatment substance, and on the 3rd, 5th, and 12th day all the mice received a saline solution. Results and conclusion: The mice who had been administered psychedelics buried fewer marbles on the treatment day, suggesting that psychedelics decrease compulsive behavior in mice. However, the effects of psychedelics did not last over time after the first post−injection day, when only the LSD group showed statistically significant difference compared to baseline (day 1). On the injection day the psychedelics that targeted wider receptor profile than only 5-HT2A (that is, LSD and psilocybin) had an effect of similar magnitude on the marble burying behavior than 25CN-NBOH, which targets only 5-HT2A as an agonist.