Pharmacology: uncoupling the agony from ecstasy
by
Mills EM, Banks ML, Sprague JE, Finkel T.
Cardiovascular Branch, NHLBI,
National Institutes of Health,
Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1622, USA.
Nature. 2003 Nov 27;426(6965):403-4

ABSTRACT

The recreational use of amphetamine-type stimulants can produce a marked and sometimes lethal increase in body temperature. Here we show that mice deficient in a mitochondrial protein known as UCP-3 (for 'uncoupling protein-3') have a diminished thermogenic response to the drug MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, nicknamed 'ecstasy') and so are protected against this dangerously toxic effect. Our findings indicate that UCP-3 is important in MDMA-induced hyperthermia and point to a new therapeutic direction for solving an increasing public-health problem.

Carvedilol
Controversies
Prenatal ecstasy
Men and women
Alexander Shulgin
Water intoxication
Prozac and ecstasy
Protect and survive
L-deprenyl and ecstasy
MDMA-induced hyperthermia
MDMA and body temperature
MDMA-induced hyperthermia and the HPT axis
MDMA-induced hyperthermia and serotonin status
Induction of malignant hyperthermia in suspectible pigs on MDMA