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Erowid seeking papers: N, N-dimethyltryptamine: an endogenous hallucinogen.

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I just received an e-mail from Erowid. Thought I would repost here, maybe someone here could help Erowid about DMT.




From: vol@erowid.org

Hey erowid volunteer gang,

I'm looking to find copies of two papers to try to nail down the issue of whether there is published data showing DMT is *produced* in the brain or just found in it.
We recently published a short article looking at the issue of whether there is direct evidence of DMT being produced in the pineal gland (there isn't):

Erowid DMT Vaults : DMT and the Pineal: Fact or Fiction? by Jon Hanna

'DMT and the Pineal: Fact or Fiction?' by Jon Hanna.
www.erowid.org

... but a visitor asked us to remove a statement on the site about DMT being produced in the brain.

We think it is, but apparently don't have the papers on hand in the library to be able to verify this.

Anyone have access to any of these full articles?

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

N, N-dimethyltryptamine: an endogenous hallucinogen - PubMed

N, N-dimethyltryptamine: an endogenous hallucinogen
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

1) Barker SA, Monti JA, Christian ST. N, N-dimethyltryptamine: an
endogenous hallucinogen. Int Rev Neurobiol. 1981;22:83-110.

2) Su TP, Hayashi T, Vaupel DB. When the endogenous hallucinogenic trace
amine N,N-dimethyltryptamine meets the sigma-1 receptor.
Sci Signal. 2009 Mar 10;2(61): pe12.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

When the endogenous hallucinogenic trace amine N,N-dimethyltryptamine meets the sigma-1 receptor - PubMed

N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a hallucinogen found endogenously in human brain that is commonly recognized to target the 5-hydroxytryptamine 2A receptor or the trace amine-associated receptor to exert its psychedelic effect. DMT has been recently shown to bind sigma-1 receptors, which are...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

3) Burchett SA, Hicks TP. The mysterious trace amines: protean
neuromodulators of synaptic transmission in mammalian brain.
Prog Neurobiol. 2006 Aug;79(5-6):223-46. Epub 2006 Sep 7.

Or suggestions for other papers or research that has identified the source of n,n-DMT detected in the brain.

Thanks for any help!

earth


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Erowid added this to the page the 29th of this month:

Addendum by Rick Strassman said:
"I did my best in the DMT book to differentiate between what is known, and what I was conjecturing about (based upon what is known), regarding certain aspects of DMT dynamics. However, it's amazing how ineffective my efforts seem to have been. So many people write me, or write elsewhere, about DMT, and the pineal, assuming that the things I conjecture about are true. When I was writing the book, I thought I was clear enough, and repeating myself would have gotten tedious.

"We don't know whether DMT is made in the pineal. I muster a lot of circumstantial evidence supporting a reason to look long and hard at the pineal, but we do not yet know. There are data suggesting urinary DMT rises in psychotic patients when their psychosis is worse. However, we don't know whether DMT rises during dreams, meditation, near-death, death, birth or any other endogenous altered state. To the extent those states resemble those brought on by giving DMT, it certainly makes one wonder if endogenous DMT might be involved, and if it were, it would explain a lot. But we don't know yet. Even if the pineal weren't involved, that would have little overall effect on my theories regarding a role for DMT in endogenous altered states, because we do know that the gene involved in DMT synthesis is present in many organs, particularly lung. If the pineal made DMT, it would tie up a lot of loose ends regarding this enigmatic little organ. But people seem to live pretty normals lives without a pineal gland; for example, when it has had to be removed because of a tumor.

"In both these regards--the pineal-DMT connection, and endogenous DMT dynamics--we ought to know a lot more within the next several years due to the efforts of a research group being led by Steven Barker at Louisiana State University. He, with his grad student Ethan McIlhenny, are developing a new super-assay for DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, bufotenine, and metabolites. This assay will be capable of detecting those compounds much more sensitively than previous generations of assays. They're looking at endogenous levels in awake sober normals, to assess baseline values of these compounds. We should have some data from those samples within a year. They also will be looking at pineal tissue. Once we have some baseline data in normal humans in normal waking consciousness, comparisons can be made between those levels and levels in endogenous altered states, like dreams, near-death, and so on."
Click to expand...
 
DMT is not produced by the pineal gland, because the mRNA sequence for indolethylamine N-methyltransferase (INMT) simply isn't present in the pineal gland. INMT is an enzyme that is needed to synthesize DMT. Without any gene coding for the enzyme, the enzyme isn't present. It is present in the lungs though, among other places.
 
Evening Glory said:
DMT is not produced by the pineal gland, because the mRNA sequence for indolethylamine N-methyltransferase (INMT) simply isn't present in the pineal gland. INMT is an enzyme that is needed to synthesize DMT. Without any gene coding for the enzyme, the enzyme isn't present. It is present in the lungs though, among other places.
Click to expand...
Bump...It's not so much that there are papers showing that DMT is present in the brain as it is the papers showing that INMT is missing and therefore cannot be synthesized in the pineal.
 
This is straight out of DMT: The Spirit Molecule -
The race was on. In 1965 a research team from Germany published a
paper in the flagship British science journal Nature announcing that they
had isolated DMT from human blood. In 1972 Nobel-prize winning scientist
Julius Axelrod of the U.S. National Institutes of Health reported finding
it in human brain tissue. Additional research showed that DMT could
also be found in human urine and the cerebrospinal fluid bathing the
brain. It was not long before scientists discovered the pathways, similar to
those in lower animals, by which the human body made DMT. DMT thus
became the first endogenous human psychedelic.12
Endogenous means that a compound is made in the body: endo,
"within," and genous, "generated" or "formed." Endogenous DMT, then,
is DMT made within the body. There are other endogenous compounds
with which we've become familiar over the years. For example, endogenous
morphine-like compounds are endorphins.
Click to expand...
 
Spira said:
This is straight out of DMT: The Spirit Molecule -
The race was on. In 1965 a research team from Germany published a
paper in the flagship British science journal Nature announcing that they
had isolated DMT from human blood. In 1972 Nobel-prize winning scientist
Julius Axelrod of the U.S. National Institutes of Health reported finding
it in human brain tissue. Additional research showed that DMT could
also be found in human urine and the cerebrospinal fluid bathing the
brain. It was not long before scientists discovered the pathways, similar to
those in lower animals, by which the human body made DMT. DMT thus
became the first endogenous human psychedelic.12
Endogenous means that a compound is made in the body: endo,
"within," and genous, "generated" or "formed." Endogenous DMT, then,
is DMT made within the body. There are other endogenous compounds
with which we've become familiar over the years. For example, endogenous
morphine-like compounds are endorphins.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
riiiiiigt...but just because something is found in the brain tissue doesn't mean it originated there. DMT is the second most actively transported molecule across the blood-brain barrier (right behind glucose, which powers the brain). This is completely fascinating and could explain the presence of dmt in brain tissue. It does not, however, rectify the lack of INMT in the pineal gland. That fact alone shoots Strassman's pineal-dmt theory to hell. While TSM is a great book and the first half of it is an outstanding blueprint for how to get/deal with Schedule I research and related issues cleared, it is by no means the be-all end-all of information on dmt. It also gets older (read: more out of date) with every passing day...
 
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