Classic psychedelics do not affect T cell and monocyte immune responses

Deborah Rudin; Alexander Areesanan; Matthias E Liechti; Carsten Gründemann

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1042440

Classic psychedelics do not affect T cell and monocyte immune responses

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Jan 20:14:1042440. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1042440. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Deborah Rudin^{1

2}, Alexander Areesanan³, Matthias E Liechti^{1

2}, Carsten Gründemann³

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Biomedicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
² Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
³ Translational Complementary Medicine, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

Abstract

Introduction: Classic psychedelics have been shown to exert therapeutic potential for the treatment of various psychiatric disorders, neuropsychiatric diseases, and neuronal damage. Besides their psychopharmacological activity, psychedelics have been reported to modulate immune functions. There has thus far been a sparse exploration of the direct immune-modulating effect of psychedelics on human immune cells in vitro. Since T cells are key mediators of several immune functions, inhibition of their function would increase the risk of infections.

Methods: We investigated the effect of the classic psychedelics lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocin, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and mescaline on the proliferation and stimulated cytokine release of primary human T lymphocytes and on the stimulated NF-κB induction of monocytes.

Results: We did not observe any relevant direct immune-modulatory effects of the tested classic psychedelics in either cell line.

Discussion: We concluded that LSD, psilocin, DMT, or mescaline did not directly stimulate the proliferation or cytokine secretion of primary human T lymphocytes or stimulate NF-κB induction of monocytes. Our findings support the future safe use of classic psychedelics in assisted psychotherapy in patients with life-threatening diseases where immune suppression and diminished immune function would be detrimental.

Keywords: DMT; LSD; T cell; mescaline; monocyte; psilocin; psychedelic.

Grants and funding

ML received funding for the present study by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant no. 32003B_185111). AA and CG were supported by PRIAM-BS (Verein Stiftungsprofessur für Integrative und Anthroposophische Medizin an der Universität Basel).