快猫短视频s have engineered tobacco plants to produce five powerful psychedelic compounds normally found in other plants, fungi and animals in a single crop. They argue that using plants to manufacture the drugs would be simpler and more sustainable than existing processes, making research into therapeutic uses and production of future medicines easier.

at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and his colleagues modified聽Nicotiana benthamiana plants using a technique called agroinfiltration, which involves using a bacterium to introduce genes from other organisms into a plant. The modified plant then makes the proteins encoded by those genes, but the DNA isn鈥檛 incorporated into the plant鈥檚 genome, so the effect is short-lived.

With the addition of nine genes, the plants were able to produce psilocin and psilocybin, usually found in mushrooms; DMT from various plants; and bufotenin and 5-methoxy-DMT, compounds secreted by the Colorado river toad (Incilius alvarius).

Plants could easily be altered permanently with changes that become inheritable, but doing so could be problematic, given that the compounds produced are commonly used as recreational drugs, says Aharoni. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit tricky if we have it inherited, and then people will ask for seeds,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e can do it also in tomato, potato, corn.鈥�

The medical uses of psychedelic compounds are becoming more popular and better understood, says Aharoni, but harvesting them from natural sources risks populations threatened by habitat loss and overexploitation. The drugs are chemically synthesised for use in research, but producing them in tobacco plants, which are easily cultivated in greenhouses, would be much simpler.

The idea of growing drugs through pharmaceutical farming, or 鈥減harming鈥�, certainly isn鈥檛 new. Plant-produced protein drugs have been approved in the US since 2012, and as far back as 2002, maize has been modified to produce a pharmaceutical protein. Another research team used tobacco plants in 2022 to synthesise cocaine, discovering that it could produce about 400 nanograms of cocaine per milligram of dried leaf 鈥� about a 25th of the level in a coca plant.

Free newsletter

Sign up to The Earth Edition

Sign up to newsletter

A single dose of LSD seems to reduce anxiety

About half of people with generalised anxiety disorder don鈥檛 respond to common treatments with antidepressants 鈥� but psychedelics may offer relief

at the University of Nottingham, UK, says around 25 per cent of prescription drugs are derived wholly or partially from plants, and there are massive opportunities to create 鈥済reen factories鈥� that can grow new compounds in greenhouses.

鈥淚f you want to understand something, you鈥檝e got to be able to build something, so showing that you can make it in tobacco plants is useful,鈥� says Fray. 鈥淎s a technical accomplishment, to show that you understand the pathways and can do it, I think it has value.鈥�

A single dose of the psychedelic drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT) had a rapid and sustained effect on depressive symptoms in a small trial.

DMT 鈥� a fast-acting and extremely potent psychedelic found in numerous plants across the world 鈥� is subject to the strictest international controls, with the United Nations considering it a substance with high abuse potential and no recognised medical use.

But a wave of observational research suggests that DMT, and other psychedelics, could help people with severe mental health conditions, particularly those .

In the latest study, at Imperial College London and his colleagues studied 34 people who had experienced moderate to severe depression for an average of 10 years, and who had unsuccessfully tried at least two conventional medicine- or psychotherapy-based treatments.

Alongside psychotherapeutic support, half of the participants were given a large, 21.5-milligram dose of DMT intravenously over 10 minutes, while the rest received a placebo infusion.

All the participants completed a depression-rating questionnaire at the start of the study. Two weeks after the infusions, the DMT group saw their depression-rating scores go down by 7.4 points more, on average, than the placebo group. This was consistently maintained for three months, and for up to six months for some of the participants.

Free newsletter

Sign up to Eight Weeks to a Healthier You

Sign up to newsletter

In another part of the study, all of the participants were free to have a dose of DMT, either as a second dose or, for the placebo group, the first, alongside therapist support. This didn鈥檛 significantly improve outcomes beyond the first dose, suggesting that one treatment is sufficient for a lasting effect.

In terms of safety, side effects were mild, with some of the participants reporting temporary anxiety, nausea and pain at the site of infusion.

鈥淲e鈥檝e shown that a single DMT experience, lasting only around 25 minutes, can be safe, well-tolerated and associated with meaningful improvements in depression that appear to persist beyond the acute psychedelic state,鈥� says Erritzoe. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 promising is how comparable these early signals look to results seen in trials of longer-acting psychedelics such as psilocybin.鈥� A shorter psychedelic experience should reduce treatment costs, he says.

But the nature of taking a psychedelic means people can typically gauge whether or not they are in the placebo group, so the results may reflect both DMT鈥檚 effects and the participants鈥� expectations.

The researchers noted that the intensity of mystical-type experiences that the DMT group reported about 25 minutes after receiving the drug was linked to their degree of therapeutic improvement. 鈥淭he more someone felt a sense of unity; a deeply positive emotional shift; a change in how they experienced time and space; and something so profound it was hard to put into words, the more benefit they tended to report afterwards,鈥� says team member , also at Imperial.

How psychedelics and VR could reveal how we become immersed in reality

An outlandish experiment searching for a brain network that tunes up and down the feeling of immersion is hoping to unlock the therapeutic effects of psychedelics

Although it is unclear exactly how psychedelics like DMT may be beneficial for treating depression, research suggests that taking them provides a temporary window of neuroplasticity, where the brain can form new connections, or that they may dampen inflammation associated with poor mental health.

鈥� a pioneer in psychedelics research 鈥� says these results build upon in which the participants were told which drug they were taking. Yet he still stresses the importance of progressing cautiously. 鈥淲hile the DMT experience is briefer than psilocybin and LSD, it can be significantly more disorienting than longer-acting psychedelics and requires careful preparation, monitoring and follow-up.鈥�

Erritzoe and his team say the results should help guide the testing of a modified form of DMT called for anxiety by Helus Pharma. In the meantime, a similar molecule, called 5-MeO-DMT, is at a more advanced testing stage for depression. For instance, in New York mean that the development of its candidate for treatment-resistant depression can be expedited, making US approval likely.

A single dose of the psychedelic drug LSD seems to reduce anxiety without lasting side effects.

鈥淥urs is the first modern trial to look specifically at LSD, or any psychedelic, for generalised anxiety disorder,鈥� says at biotech company MindMed in New York.

The condition is characterised by excessive worry about a broad range of things, such as work and relationships. First-line treatment includes mood-enhancing drugs, like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and other antidepressants, and talking therapies.

But to such treatments. 鈥淔or a lot of people, SSRIs are not very effective, they have intolerable side effects [such as feeling emotionally numb] because people have to take them on a daily basis, and they only work while you鈥檙e taking them,鈥� says Karlin.

Previous studies have suggested that LSD may be an alternative. The psychedelic is often used recreationally for its mind-altering, hallucinogenic effects. Karlin says it is thought to act by increasing levels of the mood-boosting chemical serotonin in the brain, which some people say induces a profound emotional experience in them. He adds that it may also enhance the brain鈥檚 ability to rewire itself and form new thought patterns.

But until now, no trial comparing people taking LSD with others taking placebo pills has explored whether the substance can benefit those with generalised anxiety disorder.

Free newsletter

Sign up to Health Check

Sign up to newsletter

To fill this gap, Karlin and his colleagues recruited 198 adults with the condition. The participants slowly tapered off any anxiety medications they had been using, but those who were receiving psychotherapy continued with their sessions.

In a survey commonly used in clinics, the participants then rated the severity of each of 14 symptoms, such as feeling worried, tense or struggling to focus, on a scale of 0 to 4. Out of a maximum total score of 56, the participants scored 30, on average, above the threshold of 24 for severe anxiety.

Next, the team randomly split the participants into five groups that either took LSD 鈥� at various doses of 25, 50, 100 or 200 micrograms 鈥� or placebo pills, without being told which they were given. A day later, those who had received 100 and 200 microgram doses, but not the other groups, already reported an improvement in symptoms, says Karlin.

A month later, those who had received the 100 and 200 microgram doses experienced an average 21 and 19 point reduction in anxiety, respectively, with the improvement sustained until the end of the study, three months after the dosing day. About 46 per cent of these participants went into remission, which is a score of 7 or below.

Just one dose of psilocybin seems to be enough to rewire the brain

Psilocybin appears to alter brain networks linked to repetitive negative thoughts, which may explain how the drug helps to treat some mental health conditions

Meanwhile, those taking the placebo and the two lower doses saw between a 14 and 17 point reduction in anxiety over the same period, with about 20 per cent going into remission. This suggests the lower doses provided no additional relief beyond the placebo.

The benefit seen by the two highest dose groups is a substantial improvement above the placebo, says at University College London. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a clinically meaningful improvement in terms of impairment and distress,鈥� he says.

The improvement in the placebo group, a phenomenon commonly seen in anxiety trials, probably resulted from a mixture of factors, such as people feeling attended to and cared for as part of the trial, says Kamboj.

The team found that most participants could accurately guess whether they had taken LSD or the placebo. This is common with psychedelics because they have hallucinogenic side effects for many people. In all the groups, some participants聽also experienced nausea and headaches in the 12 hours after treatment.

The new evidence that explains what anxiety really is

What anxiety actually is has puzzled scientists for decades. Now we are starting to figure out how it may arise from miscommunication between the body and the brain

Those on lower doses of LSD and on the placebo experienced changes in visual perception like hallucinations at far lower rates than those on the higher doses of the psychedelic. This makes it hard to tell whether the LSD-related benefits were due to a person鈥檚 expectations based on the effects they felt or the direct effects of the drug on the brain, says Kamboj.

Despite this caveat, the study provides some of the best evidence to date that LSD could be a useful treatment for anxiety, he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very promising finding that you can get a very rapid effect in symptom reduction, that would be extremely meaningful to patients.鈥�

The results are promising enough that the US Food and Drug Administration has designated MindMed鈥檚 LSD formulation as a Breakthrough Therapy, which expedites the process for drug development. Karlin says the team is carrying out larger trials that will track benefits beyond three months, with results expected in the next couple of years.