(Chief Bee)
01-16-01 04:11
No 82967
(Rated as: excellent)
Investigations into Serotonin and Hallucinogenic Agents
Professor Dr. Richard A. Glennon
Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Virginia Commonwealth University
Introduction
Our work with serotonin (5-HT) began in the late 1960s and was largely motivated by the earlier work of Woolley and colleagues who speculated that various aspects of mental illness might be related to 5-HT, and that certain hallucinogenic agents, notably LSD, might produce some of their behavioral effects via serotonergic mechanism.
Serotonin had been identified as a putative neurotransmitter in the 1950s, and the late 1950s and early 1960s were considered banner years for the investigation of 5-HT. However, interest in 5-HT began to wane in the late 1960s. Although it was speculated that 5-HT might be involved in numerous physiological functions - both central and peripheral - it was difficult to understand how a single neurotransmitter could be involved in functions as diverse as mental illness and hallucinogenic activity, to muscle contraction, to regulation of body temperature. Furthermore, with specific regard to hallucinogenic activity, there was a growing controversy as to whether hallucinogens behaved as 5-HT agonists or as 5-HT antagonists. Few tools (pharmacological techniques and potent novel agents) were available to investigate 5-HT.
The rest of the article (50k) can be found here: http://www.phc.vcu.edu/rag/serotonin/
(Hive Bee)
01-16-01 21:30
No 83139
Not as good as the above link:
http://rothlab.cwru.edu/rothlabhomepag/D
http://pdsp.cwru.edu/srt.asp