NEUROIMAGING MDMA NEUROTOXICITY: DOPAMINE STUDIES

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. (V)3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy), a popular recreational drug, is a potent brain serotonin (5-HT) neurotoxin in experimental animals. There is mounting evidence that MDMA also produces brain 5-HT neurotoxic effects in humans. The prevailing view has been that MDMA is a selective 5-HT neurotoxin, since in animals, dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine neurons are typically unaffected. However, recently we have found that monkeys and baboons treated with a dosage regimen of MDMA modeled closely after one often used by recreational MDMA users develop profound DA neurotoxicity, in addition to significant 5-HT neurotoxicity. This unexpected finding raises the possibility that, in addition to 5-HT neural injury, some MDMA users may sustain significant DA neural injury. The proposed study is part of a larger research project designed to assess the neurotoxic potential of MDMA in humans. The specific aim of this study is to determine if individuals who have previously taken multiple doses of MDMA over several hours ("bingers") develop profound reductions in DA and vesicular monoamine transporters (DATs and VMATs) similar to those recently discovered in nonhuman primates.