A Single Administration of the Atypical Psychedelic Ibogaine or its Metabolite Noribogaine Induces an Antidepressant-like Effect in Rats

19 March 2020, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Anecdotal reports and open label case studies in humans indicated that the psychedelic alkaloid ibogaine exert profound anti-addictive effects. Ample preclinical evidence demonstrated the efficacy of ibogaine, and its main metabolite noribogaine, in substance use disorder rodent models. In contrast to addiction research, depression-relevant effects of ibogaine or noribogaine in rodents have not been previously examined. We have recently reported that the acute ibogaine administration induced a long-term increase of brain-derived neurotrophic factor mRNA levels in the rat prefrontal cortex, which led us to hypothesize that ibogaine may elicit antidepressant-like effects in rats. Accordingly, we characterized behavioral effects (dose and time-dependence) induced by the acute ibogaine and noribogaine (20 and 40 mg/kg, i.p.) administration in rats using the forced swim test (FST). We also examined the correlation between plasma and brain concentrations of ibogaine and noribogaine and the elicited behavioral response. We found that ibogaine and noribogaine induced a dose- and time-dependent antidepressant-like effect without significant changes of animal locomotor activity. Noribogaine’s FST effect was short lived (30 minutes) and correlated with high brain concentrations (estimated > 8 mM of free drug), while the ibogaine’s antidepressant-like effect was significant at 3 hours. At this time point, both ibogaine and noribogaine were present in rat brain, at concentrations which cannot produce the same behavioral outcome on their own (ibogaine ~ 0.5 mM, noribogaine ~ 2.4 mM). Our data suggest a polypharmacological mechanism underpinning the antidepressant-like effects of ibogaine and noribogaine.

Keywords

psychedelic drugs
depression
pre-clinical test
serotonin
SERT

Supplementary materials

Title
Description
Actions
Title
Rodriguez et al ibo and noribo Supporting Information
Description
Actions

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.