Category archives: Pharmacy

Emotional dampening of antidepressants

Emotional dampening of antidepressants

MedicineNeurobiologyNeurosciencePharmacy

By José Ramón Alonso

Serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) is a neurotransmitter involved in various cognitive and affective functions. Drugs targeting serotonin transmission, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are the first-line pharmacological treatments for many neuropsychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. These antidepressants increase the concentration in the synaptic space of this neurotransmitter […]

LSD potentiates brain plasticity, improving memory

LSD potentiates brain plasticity, improving memory

NeurosciencePharmacy

By Rosa García-Verdugo

Long disregarded as a party drug, loved by hippies and alternative thinkers, LSD has been recently demonstrated to be much more than that, being useful as an anti-depressive and in therapy against PTSD and other traumas. Now, another “power” of LSD has been uncovered: it potentiates brain plasticity, thereby improving memory and other cognitive processes […]

A hydrogel matrix as viable solution for the efficient catalytic activation and delivery of cisplatin

A hydrogel matrix as viable solution for the efficient catalytic activation and delivery of cisplatin

ChemistryDIPC PhotochemistryPharmacy

By DIPC

Catalysis-based approaches for the activation of anticancer rely on the use of metal catalysts capable of deprotecting inactive precursors of organic drugs or transforming key biomolecules available in the cellular environment. Nevertheless, the efficiency of most of the schemes described so far is rather low, limiting the benefits of catalytic amplification as a strategy for […]

3 medical innovations fueled by COVID-19 that will outlast the pandemic

3 medical innovations fueled by COVID-19 that will outlast the pandemic

Computer scienceGeneticsHealthMedicineMolecular biologyPharmacy

By Invited Researcher

A number of technologies and tools got a chance to prove themselves for the first time in the context of COVID-19. Three researchers working in gene-based vaccines, wearable diagnostics and drug discovery explain how their work rose to the challenge of the pandemic, and their hopes that each technology is now poised to continue making […]

Labeling anticancer gold complexes to study their organ accumulation in vivo

Labeling anticancer gold complexes to study their organ accumulation in vivo

ChemistryDIPC PhotochemistryPharmacy

By DIPC

Auranofin is a gold (Au) salt classified by the World Health Organization as an antirheumatic agent. It was approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in 1985, but is no longer a first-line treatment due to its adverse effects on a long-term basis. But the drug is important in another way. The discovery that auranofin […]

Ayahuasca in the treatment of depression

Ayahuasca in the treatment of depression

HealthMedicineNeurosciencePharmacy

By José Ramón Alonso

Ayahuasca is an illegal entheogenic drug, substances that have the capacity to generate a mystical experience, a psychological sensation of contact with the divinity. Ayahuasca is an infusion prepared from the Banisteriopsis caapi liana and other ingredients, which include leaves of Psychotria viridis , Diplopyterys cabrerana and Mimosa tenuiflora . Psychotria has dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a […]