The Ohio Attorney General's Center for the Future of Forensic Science, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, 43403, USA. jesprag@bgsu.edu.
2 papers in the library · 10 citations · publishing 2023-2024
Hyperthermia from the drug MDMA can be life-threatening. The gut microbiome's production of bile acids appears to play a key role. In rats, MDMA caused a significant rise in body temperature and reduced serum concentrations of three bile acids (cholic acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, and deoxycholic acid) 60 minutes after treatment. Pretreatment with antibiotics depleted bile acids and reversed the hyperthermia to hypothermia. Antibiotic-treated rats also showed distinct gut bacterial communities with reduced diversity and fewer bacterial genes related to bile acid metabolism. The findings suggest that gut bacterial bile acids might be essential for MDMA-induced hyperthermia.
MDMA (Ecstasy, Molly, or X) can cause life-threatening hyperthermia. In rats, removing the adrenal glands reduced the temperature increase after MDMA, and giving norepinephrine or corticosterone partially restored it. MDMA also changed the gut microbiome, altering the balance of bacterial groups like Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Proteobacteria. These results indicate a link between the adrenal system, gut bacteria, and MDMA-induced hyperthermia.