Authors:

Clara Neubert

Date Created:

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About Paper:

Psychedelic drugs are shown to have potential in being implemented into therapeutic medicine. However, the effects of these drugs are not completely understood. Previous experiments show that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) has locomotion effects in the roundworm C. elegans. In mammals, LSD is shown to have a high affinity for serotonin receptors, which have roles in locomotion and egg laying in C. elegans. This inspired a new study to determine if other psychedelics affect egg laying and which genes might determine if the effect is shown. We created a dose response curve for the psychedelic drugs dimethyltryptamine (DMT), psilocin (PSI), LSD, and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine (DOI) for egg-laying effects in nematodes. Young adult C. elegans were placed in a well with either the control solution or a specific drug concentration (10µM, 50µM or 100µM). Preliminary data suggests that LSD influences egg-laying as worms incubated in LSD lay around 10-20 eggs whereas worms incubated in a control solution lay only 0-1 eggs. All other psychedelics showed C. elegans laying no eggs in the given concentrations. The next step in this study is to repeat these experiments with genetic mutants and incubate them with a constant concentration of LSD (50µM). Through this study, we can determine which proteins LSD is affecting, allowing for future studies to understand more about how psychedelics work in an organism.

Source:

University of Oregon / 2026

Topics:

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Co-authors:

Clara Neubert