Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Medical College of Virginia Campus, Virginia Commonwealth University, 800 E. Leigh St., STE 205, Richmond, VA, 23219-0540, USA.
2 papers in the library · 23 citations · publishing 2004-2025
Two sulfur-containing phenylalkylamines, 4-MTA and 2C-T-7, gaining popularity on the illicit drug market, were tested in rats trained to discriminate the hallucinogen DOM, the stimulant cocaine, or the empathogen MDMA from a neutral substance. 4-MTA and its analog 4-MTMA substituted only for MDMA, whereas 2C-T-7 substituted only for DOM. These results indicate that 4-MTA and 4-MTMA act like MDMA, while 2C-T-7 behaves like a DOM-like hallucinogen, extending knowledge of structure-activity relationships and aligning with limited human reports.
The drug α-ethyltryptamine (α-ET), once used as an antidepressant and structurally related to the hallucinogen α-methyltryptamine, produces stimulus effects in rats that are similar to those of the phenylalkylamines MDMA (Ecstasy) and MDA (Love Drug). Rats trained to discriminate α-ET from saline showed full generalization to both MDMA and MDA. Four synthetic analogs of α-ET produced varied results: 4-OMe α-ET showed negligible α-ET-like effects, 5-OMe α-ET modest effects, while 6-OMe α-ET and 7-OMe α-ET fully generalized but with a narrow dose range for the former. α-ET appears to exert a complex stimulus combining features of MDMA, MDA, hallucinogens, and stimulants, suggesting it is a tryptamine counterpart to these phenylalkylamines.