An assessment of the acute effects of the serotonin releasers methylenedioxymethamphetamine, methylenedioxyamphetamine and fenfluramine on immunity in rats
by
Connor TJ, Kelly JP, Leonard BE
Department of Pharmacology,
National University of Ireland, Galway.
thomas.connor@nuigalway.ie
Immunopharmacology 2000 Mar; 46(3):223-35
ABSTRACT
The
purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of the serotonin
releasing amphetamine derivatives methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA),
methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and fenfluramine (FEN) on immunity in
rats. Similar to MDA and MDMA, FEN reduced the number of circulating
lymphocytes, provoked a suppression of Con A-stimulated lymphocyte
proliferation and total IFN-gamma and IL-10 production in diluted whole
blood cultures. Thus the non-psychostimulant amphetamine derivative FEN,
shares the ability of the psychostimulant methylenedioxy-substituted
amphetamine derivatives to alter these indices of immune function in the
rat. However, when Con A-stimulated cytokine production was normalised
for the number of lymphocytes in culture in order to examine cytokine
production at a cellular level, the effect of the amphetamine
derivatives begins to diverge. FEN shares with MDMA and MDA the ability
to suppress production of the Th2 type cytokine IL-10. However the
effect of these drugs on Th1 type cytokine secretion was much more
complex. While the methylendioxy-substituted amphetamines increases the
secretion of the Th1 type cytokine IL-2 without altering the related Th1
type cytokine IFN-gamma, FEN did not alter IL-2 secretion, but
suppressed IFN-gamma secretion. In addition to these effects on T-cell
responses, all three drugs inhibited LPS-induced TNF-alpha secretion
from diluted whole blood cultures suggesting that macrophage activity is
impaired following treatment. In all, these data extend our previous
findings concerning the effects of MDMA on the immune system and
demonstrate that the related serotonin releasers MDA and FEN also
provoke immunological changes in rats.
MDMA
Metabolism
Entactogens
Empathogens
MDMA/m-CPP
MDMA and MAO
Alexander Shulgin
MDMA and serotonin
MDMA: pharmcokinetics
MDMA: immune function
Cell-mediated immune response