The psychedelic drug psilocybin may help prevent the nerve damage that often accompanies chemotherapy, studies in mice suggest.
Chemotherapy-related peripheral neuropathy can result in pain, numbness, increased sensitivity to cold, and loss of sensation that linger long after treatment ends and are often irreversible.
In mice, two doses of psilocybin given before chemotherapy prevented hypersensitivity to cold, protected sensory nerve endings and preserved touch sensation without affecting chemotherapy’s antitumor activity, researchers reported on Thursday in Science.
Psilocybin directly affects the peripheral nervous system through brain cell surface proteins called serotonin 5-HT2A receptors. Blocking the 5-HT2A pathway reversed the drug’s neuroprotective effects, while using a non-hallucinogenic compound that activates the same brain-cell surface proteins produced similar protection to psilocybin.
Psilocybin also helped protect nerve cells’ mitochondria – their “energy factories” – from the damaging effects of chemotherapy drugs, the researchers found.
“There is an urgent need for treatments that prevent nerve injury without interfering with lifesaving chemotherapy,” study leader Dr. Moran Amit of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center said in a statement. “These findings offer important insights into how psilocybin may protect nerves before damage occurs, rather than treating symptoms after they become persistent.”
His team’s findings are the basis for an upcoming mid-stage trial evaluating psilocybin during chemotherapy in patients with multiple cancer types to determine whether the mechanisms observed in the lab translate to clinically meaningful reductions in peripheral neuropathy in patients.
