MDMA Folklore

[Rectify]

If you watch the NBC Nightline news special, "Ecstasy Rising," on youtube then you will see a top level government NIDA scientist basically admit or at least strongly imply that he more or less commissioned a scientist to come up with a study that somehow gives concrete evidence that mdma causes real damage, and that's exactly what happened there. Consider your sources.

Back when I first started taking MDMA in the 1990's, the urban legend regarding x du jour was "ecstasy causes your spinal cord to liquify." You wouldn't believe how many people really believed this legend at the time (or maybe you would).

 

[nuke]

SERT regenerates anyway...

Serotonin transporter production and degradation rates: studies with RTI-76.

Vicentic A, Battaglia G, Carroll FI, Kuhar MJ.

Department of Pharmacology, Loyola University Chicago-Stritch School and Medicine, Maywood, IL, USA.

The objective of this study was to examine the turnover of the serotonin transporter (SERT) by determining its production rate (r), degradation rate constant (k) and half-life of recovery (t1/2). The turnover of SERT was determined from the rate of recovery of binding after administration of RTI-76, an irreversible inhibitor of ligand binding. In preliminary studies, in vitro incubation of rat cerebral cortex with RTI-76 produced a wash and temperature resistant inhibition of SERT binding densities (Bmax). Citalopram protected against the RTI-76-induced inhibition of SERT binding. Following 6 h of in vivo intracerebroventricular injections of 100 nmol of RTI-76, there was a dose- and time-dependent reduction (- 60%) of SERT binding in hippocampus and striatum, without a change in the Kd. SERT binding densities recovered over several days, reaching control levels by day 14. The recovery curve fit the standard model of protein synthesis and degradation. The turnover parameters of SERT were determined in hippocampus and striatum, regions that receive serotonergic innervation from the dorsal and median midbrain raphe nuclei, respectively. In the hippocampus, the production rate constant was 2.36 fmol mg protein (-1)h(-1); the degradation rate constant was 0.0077 h(-1); and the half-life of the SERT recovery was 3.4 days. The values in the striatum were similar. The decrease and recovery of [3H]-5-HT uptake correlated highly (r = 0.93) with the recovery of SERT binding.
PMID: 10546982

 

[Rectify]

And, interestingly enough, about 3.4 to 7 days apart [1 to 2 SERT 1/2 life regeneration intervals] is the rule of thumb for how long ecstasy experiences should be spaced out from one another in order to have the drug work properly.

 

[vecktor]

the issue is that SERT has been used as a convenient marker for serotinergic neurons, it was dogma that SERT reflected the number of serotinergic neurons.
however we know that SERT can down regulate in the prescence of an inhibitor, so the SERT expression in a serotinergic neuron is not static by any means. but perhaps long term changes >3 months in SERT binding of radio ligands points to a problem with MDMA?

The question though is how else to you look for neuronal loss or changes other than cracking open the skull and using microscopy. perhaps PET? but the resolution is nowhere near good enough.

The use of serotonin metabolite concentrations mostly 5HTIAA in the Cererobrovascular fluid has also been used. however this is very much open to interpretation. PCA causes similar declines in the indole acetic acid concentrations and there is no arguament that that material is neurotoxic in the strictest sense, it causes neuronal death, and some those that survive show malformation and morphological differences, this I think is what was generally referred to as synaptic pruning.

Perhaps a combination of measures that should be used, long term decline in SERT binding, which persists long after the agent has gone, less SERT long term is strong evidence of loss of SERT expressing neurons or synapses.

Long term alterations to the concentration of serotonin metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid, indicating altered serotonin turnover, a less active serotinergic system should produce lower concentrations, this indeed seems to be the case with heavy doses of MDMA.

long term alteration in cognitive ability. difficult to determine because of lack of a control group, but longtidudinal cohort studies seem to suggest that heavy use of MDMA is bad news. read the ecstacy forum on this site....QED

neurotoxicity is just a word, albeit one with negative baggage, and it really isn't worth getting twisted up in semantics.

there is enough evidence to say that heavy MDMA use causes physical changes to the brain structure, then again so does playing chess, boxing or smoking, so fucking what.

we all have to die, some people choose to live first.

 

[Rectify]

^--Well said.