Why think scientists Salvia could lead to medical treatment

 The modest Salvia plant has carefully by pharmacologists, both for leisure as also for professional. Wikimedia Commons The modest Salvia plant has carefully by pharmacologists, both for leisure as also for professional.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on Salvinorin A. It is the chemical, the herb Salvia divinorum his hallucinogens is kick. My news peg at the time was not Miley Cyrus experiments with the drug, but a scientific work, the evaluation of the drug toxicity. Turns out that if you can tolerate the intense hallucinations, the drug appears to be relatively harmless.

Johns Hopkins researcher Matthew W. Johnson, the paper the author said school of medicine he had the search for Miley and her drug dabbling friends on the safety of their fun and games, to calm, but because A similar connections Salvinorin could someday be used as therapy. This has me wondering what kind of therapy they offer simple could.

 

Salvinorin A activates something called the Kappa opioid receptors. If enabled, opioid receptors for the high are the one of drugs like heroin and opium responsible. But opium and heroin works by stimulating the mu opioid receptors.

The kappa receptors have around as the MU receptors evil cousin was called because when you elicit depression. This is not particularly desirable quality in a party drug, but potentially valuable as a therapeutic.

How? A drug that enabled the Kappa Opioid Receptors can be used to control the mania of manic depression. Activation of the kappa receptors seem to eliminate pain. Find a chemical cousin of Salvinorin A, that don't get in the brain and a powerful new analgesic may.

Someone sees potential in this approach. Issued at least three patents on salvinorin of a-related links.

Even though cause hallucinations A as a therapeutic is a disadvantage for Salvinorin, Bryan Roth sees it as a potential boon for neuroscientists. He is a Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina. "One of the things that is interesting about drugs, are hallucinogens, change the way and we see reality way," he says. Studies, as Salvinorin A affects brain circuits notes about how the brain makes sense in the world. This is a question in Roth's opinion value, tracked. "What could be more important than how we view the reality?"

Can not argue.

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