1st Results: Cottonwood/Strassman DMT Human Bioassay

[pau]

Been waiting for this news for two years!
Dr Strassman's team now able measure levels of DMT (and 5-ME0, bufo, and their presursors and metabolites) in human fluids and tissues at the incredibly low levels of under a billionth of a gram per ml. Lots more to come....my attempt to summarize the significance of this would not do it justice. So, read it for yourself:
bioassay

Congratulations to this team and their groundbreaking efforts.

 

[endlessness]

Very exciting!

 

[ntwhtyouknw]

This is great news!

 

[Vodsel]

Thanks for sharing, the times ahead look very exciting.

 

[thelastdinosaur]

what might be the implications of this accomplishment?

 

[Tokapelli]

well if Im understanding this at all the implications are that it might help them figure out what roles, if any, dmt plays in life events such as child birth, near death experiences, epiphonies etc. Its pretty cool that legitimate scientists are doing research like this, thanks for sharing this with us Pau!

 

[pau]

The way I see this is that any interested scientists will now have for the first time tools that will help explain the roles that DMT (and MEO, bufo) may play in sleep, dreams, dying, and other normal and altered states. Honestly, if I were just graduating from school, this is something I'd want to do with my life.

 

[benzyme]

what tools?
the technology has existed to detect DMT and other tryptamines in urine since ~1998, with the development of ion-trap mass specs capable of attomole detection.
perhaps they just got enough funding to purchase similar machines, which can't exactly tell them what the roles DMT play in human consciousness. Would you be disappointed if you found out that DMT has little to do with sleep, dreaming, death, and other 'mystical' topics? I wouldn't.

I also wonder why comments are closed on that page. :?:

 

[pau]

not being a scientist, I can only confess to being impressed by the potential impact on future experimentation from this part of the report:
Early investigations into the role of endogenous tryptamine hallucinogens in humans did not have at their disposal methods sensitive and specific enough to unequivocally measure the parent hallucinogens at their apparent very low levels, particularly in blood. Additionally, all such studies had previously ignored the importance of the levels of their metabolites, information that has proven to be necessary to fully assess the status of an endogenous hallucinogen pathway. This new methodology provides an improvement over previous assay sensitivity by at least ten to one thousand-fold, provides confirmation of structural identity, and finally provides information on a major metabolite (the N-oxide) that has never before been monitored in any endogenous hallucinogen study in humans.

If Strassman & Co are not being truthful with these claims about their new measurement tools, or simply overblowing their results, then presumably this will come out sooner or later.

 

[Hiyo Quicksilver]

Now all he needs is that dark matter detector and he can get all those theories of his straight!

 

[Francois]

Wow, I was not aware of what Dr. Rick Strassman was doing these days, it's looks very promising!

Also, I love the idea of the research centre they are trying to set up in New Mexico, what a place to have a career! I hope it gets the funding required, because regardless of how completely unexpected the results are, they will surely illuminate at least a small part of this puzzling subject that all of us will have spent far too long a time speculating over. This'll be another website that I imagine won't be updated too regularly but I must check every now and then...just in case!

 

[VIII]

what tools?
the technology has existed to detect DMT and other tryptamines in urine since ~1998, with the development of ion-trap mass specs capable of attomole detection.

I'm sure you read the article and know you to be much more well versed in this area than I, but this was my interpretation.

The new method ... can be employed to measure the three known endogenous hallucinogens and their major N-oxide metabolites in blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, ocular fluid and/or other tissues. The method uses advanced LC/MS/MS technology and a simple sample preparation step that permits unequivocal identification of the compounds and detection at less than 1 picogram/ml (one billionth of a gram per milliliter).

Again, I'm not well versed in the tool/technology used here, but you mention it has been possible to detect in urine. This method claims to detect "in blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, ocular fluid and/or other tissues." If they didn't create the LC/MS/MS technology, then perhaps they only added the "simple sample preparation step."

This paragraph in particular applies:

The analyses have shown a major metabolite of DMT, DMT-N-oxide (which retains the identifying structure of the parent substance), being excreted in the urine at levels 10-20 times greater than DMT itself after ayahuasca administration. Similarly, N-oxide levels in blood were four times greater than DMT. This is the first time this metabolite has been reported in humans following DMT administration by any route. All previous studies that attempted to measure DMT in blood and/or urine failed to measure this compound and thus may have missed significant additional evidence for the presence of DMT. Data suggest that similar results will also occur for the endogenous hallucinogens bufotenine and 5-methoxy-DMT and that measurement of their N-oxide metabolites will also greatly enhance our ability to determine the normal role and function of these compounds.

From my understanding here, previous studies possibly also did not focus on the N-oxide metabolites (of DMT, bufotenine, and 5-methoxy-DMT)? Which is the avenue they seem to be pursuing for answering, “What is the role of endogenous hallucinogens in humans?”

Nonetheless I'm glad the research is progressing.

 

[benzyme]

those tools (which I absolutely love, btw) can only show the presence of small molecules and peptides, MALDI can tell the presence of proteins. they obviously give no information about why they exist, or what function they may have. They should also do some ELIZAs and western blots to shed more light on their theories.

 

[VIII]

Thanks for clearing that up, I'll have to gain a better understanding of the tools mentioned.