A Single Administration of the Atypical Psychedelic Ibogaine or its Metabolite Noribogaine Induces an Antidepressant-like Effect in Rats
ChemRxiv March 19, 2020 Paola Rodrı́guez, Jessika Urbanavicius, José Pedro Prieto et al. 1 citation
Ibogaine and its main metabolite noribogaine produce antidepressant-like effects in rats in a dose- and time-dependent manner, without altering locomotor activity. Noribogaine's effect is short-lived (30 minutes) and correlates with high brain concentrations (estimated > 8 µM free drug), while ibogaine's effect is significant at 3 hours. At that time, both compounds are present in the brain at concentrations (ibogaine ~0.5 µM, noribogaine ~2.4 µM) that alone cannot produce the same behavioral outcome, suggesting a polypharmacological mechanism underlies their antidepressant-like effects.