Effect of oral tryptamines on the gut microbiome of rats—a preliminary study
PeerJ June 3, 2024 Mengyang Xu, Haifei Shi, Andor J. Kiss et al. 5 citations
Psilocybin and related tryptamines, currently studied as potential antidepressants, may work partly through the gut microbiome. In a preliminary experiment, male Long Evans rats received oral psilocybin (0.2 or 2 mg/kg), norbaeocystin (0.25 or 2.52 mg/kg), or a vehicle. Fecal samples collected 1 and 3 weeks later showed that neither drug significantly altered overall microbiome diversity, but both caused dose- and time-dependent shifts in bacterial abundance at the phylum level—increases in Verrucomicrobia and Actinobacteria, and decreases in Proteobacteria. These findings suggest a novel peripheral mechanism for tryptamine antidepressant activity and indicate norbaeocystin may warrant further investigation.