LSD and healthy longevity

Amanda started this research programme in 2019 in collaboration with Prof Sidarta Ribeiro and Prof Stevens Rehen, with the aim of exploring in great depth the effects of LSD on important processes such as neuroplasticity, neurogenesis and inflammation. Our work so far, recently published in Experimental Neurology (Ornelas et al. 2022), has demonstrated the nootropic effects of LSD, confirming my long-held view that LSD can be used as a psycho-vitamin. Our work will now explore a range of applications with a particular focus on aging and healthy longevity.

Below is a selection of studies underway or planned, which we are in the process of extending further:

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Brain Cells: Assessing the effects of LSD on inflammation in neural cells

Along with neuroplasticity, neuro-inflammation is another important mechanism involved in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. The goal of this study is to evaluate if LSD can affect the brain response to an inflammatory insult by focusing on astrocytes, a type of brain cells that play an important role in neuroinflammation.

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Growing Alzheimer’s minibrains

Image of a lab-grown cerebral organoid (minibrains)

Cerebral organoid (aka ‘minibrains’) technology has made it possible to model human neurophysiology and disease with increasing accuracy in patient-derived stem cell cultures. Early studies demonstrated that Alzheimer’s patient-derived organoids robustly develop the disease’s pathological hallmarks. We will build on our existing work on psychedelics and minibrains by growing minibrains derived from Alzheimer’s patients and testing the ability of LSD to modulate molecular biomarkers of the disease.

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First investigation of the effects of psychedelics on longevity in C. elegans roundworms: a widely used animal model of aging

By exposing C. elegans to different concentrations of LSD, we can evaluate the effects on the animals' behaviour and longevity, as well as relevant markers of neurodegeneration. We will next move to investigate the effect of LSD on genetically modified C. elegans that express hallmarks of Alzheimer’s pathology.

Prof. Stevens Rehen

Amanda is directing this research programme with Prof. Stevens Rehen, a Brazilian neuroscientist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Researcher at D’Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), and a pioneer in culturing human induced pluripotent stem cells, neurospheres and brain organoids (minibrains).