Evidence that 5‐HT<sub>2A</sub> receptor signalling efficacy and not biased agonism differentiates serotonergic psychedelic from non‐psychedelic drugs
In summary, all psychedelic drugs tested were unbiased, partial 5-HT<sub>2A</sub> receptor agonists. Importantly, the non-psychedelic drugs lisuride, TBG and IHCH-7079 were discriminated from psychedelic drugs, not through ligand bias but rather by low efficacy. Therefore, low 5-HT<sub>2A</sub> receptor signalling efficacy may explain why some 5-HT<sub>2A</sub> receptor agonists are not psychedelic, although a larger panel of drugs should be tested to confirm this idea.
Authors
- Sridhar R. Vasudevan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0516-2984)
- Shaun Hurley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4173-1669)
- Grant C. Churchill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9591-9391)
- Trevor Sharp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7434-9713)
- Frederick G. Westhorpe
- Gary Gilmour (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1777-6975)
- Aurelija Ippolito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3579-204X)
Institutions
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Pathways Behavioral Services (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- British Journal of Pharmacology
- Published
- 2025-06-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.70109
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Psychedelics and Drug Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.23
Funders
- Medical Research Council