Drug-Induced Psychosis: How to Avoid Star Gazing in Schizophrenia Research by Looking at More Obvious Sources of Light

The prevalent view today is that schizophrenia is a syndrome rather than a specific disease. Liability to schizophrenia is highly heritable. It appears that multiple genetic and environmental factors operate together to push individuals over a threshold into expressing the characteristic clinical picture. One environmental factor which has been curiously neglected is the evidence that certain drugs can induce schizophrenia-like psychosis. In the last 60 years, improved understanding of the relationship between drug abuse and psychosis has contributed substantially to our modern view of the disorder suggesting that liability to psychosis in general, and to schizophrenia in particular, is distributed trough the general population in a similar continuous way to liability to medical disorders such as hypertension and diabetes. In this review we examine the main hypotheses resulting from the link observed between the most common psychotomimetic drugs (lysergic acid diethylamide, amphetamines, cannabis, phencyclidine) and schizophrenia

NEW SECONDARY METABOLITES IN THE AMPHINOMID FIREWORM HERMODICE CARUNCULATA

Eight betaine-derived novel compounds were found in extracts of the Mediterranean stinging fireworm Hermodice carunculata. The identification of their structures relies on 1D and 2D NMR (Fig. 1-3) and HPLC-ESI/HRMS spectra. Two types of terminal ammonium portions A and B and a series of different alkyl chains were identified (Fig. 4a,b). Their matching provides the structures of uncharacterized secondary metabolites, named carunculines, and their related isomers. These molecules differ from already known trimethylammonium inflammatory compounds (i.e. complanines) isolated from another amphinomid species, for the structures of the terminal ammonium groups (Fig. 4c) [1]. Carunculine anatomical distribution within H. carunculata was assessed by screening through HPLC-ESI/HRMS (Fig. 5, Table 1): their occurrence was revealed in all the body parts analyzed, both involved in predator-prey interactions [2], and mainly in the digestive apparatus. The results achieved reveal an array of different novel compounds from a chemically unknown species, improving knowledge on Marine Animal Products with chemical and biological potential for bioprospection [3]. Overall, these data reinforce the necessity of studying poorly-investigated taxa to expand knowledge on animal venom biology, their mechanisms of action and exploitation as promising source of drug molecule

The MAGIC Experiment and Its First Results

With its diameter of 17m, the MAGIC telescope is the largest Cherenkov detector for gamma ray astrophysics. It is sensitive to photons above an energy of 30 GeV. MAGIC started operations in October 2003 and is currently taking data. This report summarizes its main characteristics, its rst results and its potential for physics.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium ''Frontiers of Fundamental and Computational Physics'' (FFP6), Udine (Italy), Sep. 26-29, 200