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      Psychedelic Fauna for Psychonaut Hunters: A Mini-Review

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          Abstract

          Currently different classes of psychoactive substances are easily available for abuse, including several hundred novel psychoactive substances (NPS). Some of these drugs occur naturally in plants and animals or are chemically modified from plant or animal compounds and have been abused by humans over millennia. Recently, the occurrence of a new “drug culture” (e.g., psychonauts) who consume a great variety of NPS with hallucinogenic/psychedelic properties, facilitated the development of a new “psychedelic trend” toward the consumption of substances contained in some species of animals (“psychedelic fauna”). The present review aims at providing an overview of the most commonly abused “psychedelic animals,” by combining a dual search strategy coming from online psychonauts' experiences and English literature searches on the PubMed/Medline Google Scholar databases. A multilingual qualitative assessment on a range of websites and online resources was performed in order to identify a list of animals who possess some psychoactive properties and could be abused by humans for recreational purposes. Several species are implicated (i.e., ants, amphibians, fish). Routes of administration depend on the animal, substance included, metabolism, toxicity and individual, social and cultural variability. Online purchase and access are easy through tourism-related search strategies (“ frog trip,” “ help of charmer snake,”religious trip”).

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          Most cited references46

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          Alkaloids from amphibian skin: a tabulation of over eight-hundred compounds.

          A diverse array of biologically active, lipid-soluble alkaloids have been discovered in amphibian skin. Such alkaloids include the following: the steroidal samandarines from salamanders, the batrachotoxins, histrionicotoxins, gephyrotoxins, and epibatidine from neotropical poison frogs (Dendrobatidae), the pumiliotoxins, allopumiliotoxins, homopumiliotoxins, and decahydroquinolines from certain genera of anurans from four families (Dendrobatidae, Mantellidae, Bufonidae, and Myobatrachidae), a variety of izidines (pyrrolizidines, indolizidines, quinolizidines, lehmizidines), pyrrolidines, piperidines, various tricyclics (related in structures to the coccinellines), and spiropyrrolizidines from the first three of these four families, the pseudophrynamines from one genus of Australian frogs, and a variety of unclassified alkaloids as yet of undetermined structure. With the exception of the samandarines and the pseudophrynamines, all alkaloids appear to be derived from dietary sources. Although only a few of the over 800 amphibian skin alkaloids have been detected in arthropods, putative arthropod sources for the batrachotoxins and coccinelline-like tricyclics (beetles), the pumiliotoxins (ants, mites), the decahydroquinolines, izidines, pyrrolidines, and piperidines (ants), and the spiropyrrolizidines (millipedes) have been discovered. Ants are likely sources for histrionicotoxins, lehmizidines, and tricyclic gephyrotoxins. Epibatidines represent an important alkaloid class without a putative dietary source. The structures for many of these alkaloids have been rigorously established, while the structures of others represent tentative proposals, based only on mass spectral and FTIR spectral data, along with analogies to structures of well-defined alkaloids.
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            Tetrodotoxin – Distribution and Accumulation in Aquatic Organisms, and Cases of Human Intoxication

            Many pufferfish of the family Tetraodontidae possess a potent neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin (TTX). In marine pufferfish species, toxicity is generally high in the liver and ovary, whereas in brackish water and freshwater species, toxicity is higher in the skin. In 1964, the toxin of the California newt was identified as TTX as well, and since then TTX has been detected in a variety of other organisms. TTX is produced primarily by marine bacteria, and pufferfish accumulate TTX via the food chain that begins with these bacteria. Consequently, pufferfish become non-toxic when they are fed TTX-free diets in an environment in which the invasion of TTX-bearing organisms is completely shut off. Although some researchers claim that the TTX of amphibians is endogenous, we believe that it also has an exogenous origin, i.e., from organisms consumed as food. TTX-bearing animals are equipped with a high tolerance to TTX, and thus retain or accumulate TTX possibly as a biologic defense substance. There have been many cases of human intoxication due to the ingestion of TTX-bearing pufferfish, mainly in Japan, China, and Taiwan, and several victims have died. Several cases of TTX intoxication due to the ingestion of small gastropods, including some lethal cases, were recently reported in China and Taiwan, revealing a serious public health issue.
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              Novel psychoactive substances of interest for psychiatry.

              Novel psychoactive substances include synthetic cannabinoids, cathinone derivatives, psychedelic phenethylamines, novel stimulants, synthetic opioids, tryptamine derivatives, phencyclidine-like dissociatives, piperazines, GABA-A/B receptor agonists, a range of prescribed medications, psychoactive plants/herbs, and a large series of performance and image enhancing drugs. Users are typically attracted by these substances due to their intense psychoactive effects and likely lack of detection in routine drug screenings. This paper aims at providing psychiatrists with updated knowledge of the clinical pharmacology and psychopathological consequences of the use of these substances. Indeed, these drugs act on a range of neurotransmitter pathways/receptors whose imbalance has been associated with psychopathological conditions, including dopamine, cannabinoid CB1, GABA-A/B, 5-HT2A, glutamate, and k opioid receptors. An overall approach in terms of clinical management is briefly discussed.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Psychiatry
                Front Psychiatry
                Front. Psychiatry
                Frontiers in Psychiatry
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1664-0640
                22 May 2018
                2018
                : 9
                : 153
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Psychopharmacology, Drug Misuse and Novel Psychoactive Substances Research Unit, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire , Hatfield, United Kingdom
                [2] 2Neomesia Mental Health, Villa Jolanda Hospital , Jesi, Italy
                [3] 3Polyedra , Teramo, Italy
                [4] 4Servizio per Dipendenze Patologiche, Department of Mental Health and Pathological Dependences, AUSL , Reggio Emilia, Italy
                [5] 5NHS, Department of Mental Health, Psychiatric Service of Diagnosis and Treatment, Hospital G. Mazzini , Teramo, Italy
                [6] 6Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Science, University G. D'Annunzio , Chieti, Italy
                Author notes

                Edited by: Liana Fattore, Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy

                Reviewed by: Antoni Gual, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Spain; Maria Collu, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Italy

                *Correspondence: Laura Orsolini laura.orsolini@ 123456hotmail.it

                This article was submitted to Addictive Disorders, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry

                Article
                10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00153
                5992390
                aece485d-bc63-440f-964c-8173b6911f51
                Copyright © 2018 Orsolini, Ciccarese, Papanti, De Berardis, Guirguis, Corkery and Schifano.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 19 October 2017
                : 04 April 2018
                Page count
                Figures: 0, Tables: 1, Equations: 0, References: 65, Pages: 9, Words: 6810
                Categories
                Psychiatry
                Mini Review

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                psychedelic animals,psychedelics,nps,novel psychoactive substances,hallucinogens,psychedelic fauna

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