Empowered Patient Podcast Treating Central Nervous System Disorders Using Neuroplastogens to Increase Synaptic Density with Dr. Eliseo Salinas Delix Therapeutics
Dr. Eliseo Salinas, head of Research and Development at Delix Therapeutics, is focused on developing drugs to treat central nervous system disorders by addressing synaptic density. Applying knowledge about psychoplastogens and neuroplastogens, Delix strives to increase connections between neurons in treating depression more quickly and effectively than using antidepressants.
Eliseo explains, "The term psychoplastogen was coined only a few years ago when it was realized that certain substances, like ketamine or psychedelics like psilocybin, produce those increases in synaptic density in hours, not weeks. So, those were termed psychoplastogens. More recently, it is believed that the psychedelics or psychotomimetic effects of those psychoplastogens might not be necessary for the therapeutic benefit."
"Neuroplastogens are those compounds that produce an acute increase in synaptic density in hours without producing those psychotomimetics or hallucinatory effects that the typical psychedelics produce."
"When you look at the psychoplastogens, the drugs that induce those rapid increases in synaptic density, they are not all the same. So, for example, you have one that is psilocybin, which is in the magic mushrooms. That substance produces hallucination, typical hallucinations, a trip where the person or patient has a vivid hallucinatory experience. But there are others, like ketamine, that don't produce that type of hallucination. They rarely produce hallucination. Ketamine is a dissociative agent where you feel strange or sedated and sleep for a few hours, but not typically hallucinations. And finally, the most striking difference is the effect of electroconvulsive therapy, ECT, or electroshock. In animals, electroshock does exactly the same thing as ketamine and psilocybin or LSD, producing an increase in synaptic density in hours, but it doesn't produce hallucinations or dissociations."
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