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Memantine prevents the cognitive impairment induced by MDMA in rats


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With recent investigations into a7nAChR agonists and PAMs for their potential therapeutic value as nootropics in cognitive disorders such as Schizophrenia and Alzheimer's, I thought they might pose an interesting new candidate for experimental evaluation in HPPD.

As such, I've been looking for a link between drugs of abuse, HPPD, and these receptors.
Here's an excerpt of what I've found:

 

 

A recent study of our group has demonstrated a direct interaction of MDMA with alpha-7 nicotinic receptors and that this drug induces their up-regulation as nicotinic ligands do. We also have demonstrated that, in rats, the serotonergic injury induced by MDMA is alpha7 nicotinic receptor-dependent.
 

 
Though they do pose Memantine to be a preventative treatment:
 

 

Therefore, we can hypothesize that MEM, preventing MDMA-induced neuronal injury, contributes to ameliorate cognitive impairment produced by MDMA, and both glutamic acid and alpha7 receptor antagonism are responsible of this beneficial effect.

Presuming that this pretreatment is to limit excitotoxicity (NMDAR antagonism) as well as antagonism the a7nAChRs to limit aforementioned serotonergic injury, Memantine really isn't my focus though; taking it would be controversial anyways.

What it does point out is that during MDMA exposure, there's - as we know - excitotoxicity, but also apparently a7nAChR dependent serotonergic injury as a result of agonism. Hence, what does that say about HPPD? To be honest I've not read this with much scrutiny, but this does raise questions to what the extent of the involvement is of these receptors, and how they may be implicated in the pathogenesis, sustenance, and more importantly amelioration of HPPD. Note that these receptors have also been implicated in a number of substances of abuse, such as cocaine and marijuana.

 

Again; I don't know to what extent and how they may be implicated, but they do seem to be in some way.
In any case, you can download the PDF here.

 

You can find more about a7nAChR agonists here.
 

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