ReviewMolecular neurobiology2009
Molecular and cellular mechanisms of ecstasy-induced neurotoxicity: an overview.
Review in Molecular neurobiology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 89 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
89 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 287 citations in OpenAlex.
- Synthetic Cathinones and Neurotoxicity Risks: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the MDMA Model to Address Social Impairment in Autism.Current neuropharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Differential effects of ecstasy on short-term and working memory: a meta-analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2010Pooled it
- Trial
- Sex differences in 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; ecstasy)-induced cytochrome P450 2D6 inhibition in humans.Clinical pharmacokinetics · 2011Trial
- The impact of antidepressant use on MDMA fatalities: A matched case-control study using a post-mortem database.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Wastewater-based assessment of episodic changes in psychoactive compounds and hormones during music festivals.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2026Article
- Memory deficits of MDMA users are linked to cortical thinning related to 5-HT receptor densities.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Serotonin 2C receptors are also important in head-twitch responses in male mice.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine induces reactive oxygen species-mediated autophagy and thioredoxin-interactive protein/nucleotide-binding domain, leucine-rich containing family, pyrin domain-containing-3 inflammasome activation in dental pulp stem cells.Journal of dental sciences · 2025Article
- Ecstasy, molly, MDMA: What health practitioners need to know about this common recreational drug.Disease-a-month : DM · 2025Review
- A Multimodal Preclinical Assessment of MDMA in Female and Male Rats: Prohedonic, Cognition Disruptive, and Prosocial Effects.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2024Article
- Balancing Therapeutic Efficacy and Safety of MDMA and Novel MDXX Analogues as Novel Treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorder.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2023Review
- Ecstasy metabolites and monoamine neurotransmitters upshift the NaArchives of toxicology · 2022Article
- Brain-derived neurotrophic factor protects serotonergic neurons against 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine ("Ecstasy") induced cytoskeletal damage.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2022Article
- A review on the mitochondrial toxicity of "ecstasy" (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA).Current research in toxicology · 2022Article
- Identification of Potential Human Ryanodine Receptor 1 Agonists and Molecular Mechanisms of Natural Small-Molecule Phenols as Anxiolytics.ACS omega · 2021Article
- An updated review on synthetic cathinones.Archives of toxicology · 2021Review
- Use and abuse of dissociative and psychedelic drugs in adolescence.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2021Review
- Neuronal and peripheral damages induced by synthetic psychoactive substances: an update of recent findings from human and animal studies.Neural regeneration research · 2020Review
29 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
"Ecstasy" [(+/-)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA, XTC, X, E] is a psychoactive recreational hallucinogenic substance and a major worldwide drug of abuse. Several reports raised the concern that MDMA has the ability to induce neurotoxic effects both in laboratory animals and humans. Despite more than two decades of research, the mechanisms by which MDMA is neurotoxic are still to be fully elucidated. MDMA induces serotonergic terminal loss in rats and also in some mice strains, but also a broader neuronal degeneration throughout several brain areas such as the cortex, hippocampus, and striatum. Meanwhile, in human "ecstasy" abusers, there are evidences for deficits in seronergic biochemical markers, which correlate with long-term impairments in memory and learning. There are several factors that contribute to MDMA-induced neurotoxicity, namely, hyperthermia, monoamine oxidase metabolism of dopamine and serotonin, dopamine oxidation, the serotonin transporter action, nitric oxide, and the formation of peroxinitrite, glutamate excitotoxicity, serotonin 2A receptor agonism, and, importantly, the formation of MDMA neurotoxic metabolites. The present review covered the following topics: history and epidemiology, pharmacological mechanisms, metabolic pathways and the influence of isoenzyme genetic polymorphisms, as well as the acute effects of MDMA in laboratory animals and humans, with a special focus on MDMA-induced neurotoxic effects at the cellular and molecular level. The main aim of this review was to contribute to the understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in MDMA neurotoxicity, which can help in the development of therapeutic approaches to prevent or treat the long-term neuropsychiatric complications of MDMA abuse in humans.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.