Psychedelics.
October 14, 2025
Sha Jin, H.y. Wang, Xiaohui Wang
Stress-related psychiatric disorders like depression, anxiety, and PTSD are widespread and poorly treated. Psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, and MDMA are being reconsidered as therapies because they alter consciousness, boost neuroplasticity, and affect emotional processing and serotonin systems. This perspective paper argues that these substances could help treat stress-related conditions and calls for a fundamental shift in how scientists and clinicians understand the link between psychedelics, stress, and mental health.
Expert opinion on drug discovery
May 1, 2026
Cong Zhang, Pu Jiang, Yibo Wang et al.
Psychedelics hold therapeutic promise for central nervous system disorders but are limited by hallucinogenic side effects. Molecular dynamics simulations provide atomic-level insights into receptor interactions, helping to overcome these challenges and guide the development of safer, more effective therapies. This perspective reviews how MD simulations reveal mechanisms such as biased signaling, receptor multimerization, and lipid modulation, and discusses their role in validating cryo-EM binding sites. Challenges in force fields, structural data, and system complexity must be addressed to advance rational drug design. MD simulations are transforming psychedelic drug discovery from serendipity to precision design, with the goal of a predictive 'digital pharmacology' platform.
ACS pharmacology & translational science
September 12, 2025
Junjie Zhang, Xiubo Du, Xinying Li et al.
Controlled reductions in oxygen availability—whether through psychedelics, near-death experiences, meditation, holotropic breathwork, or hypoxia therapies—may trigger calcium signaling pathways that promote synaptogenesis and the formation of new neural circuits. This process could enable functional rerouting rather than restoring damaged connections, supporting cognitive resilience and behavioral compensation in conditions such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and psychiatric disorders. Terminal lucidity in late-stage dementia may be driven by transient hypoxia, highlighting the brain's latent capacity for rapid reorganization. Integrating insights from psychedelic research, hypoxia-based therapies, and neuroplasticity studies suggests a unifying framework that leverages altered oxygen homeostasis as a novel therapeutic strategy for neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.