On May 19, 2022, Silo Pharma (OTCQB: SILO) announced that The Translational Psychedelic Research (“TrPR”) Program at UCSF (University of California San Francisco) had “successfully dosed [with psilocybin] patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease.” TrPR connects researchers and medical professionals studying how psychedelics, including psilocybin, ketamine, etc., affect brain functions and other organ systems. Silo Pharma focuses on palliative uses of psychedelics for “PTSD, Parkinson’s, and other rare neurological disorders.” In teaming up with TrPR. Silo is exploring psilocybin’s anti-inflammatory possibilities in patients exhibiting signs of Parkinson’s Disease.
Psilocybin’s journey from magic mushrooms to potential life savers has been a long, strange trip. Used for millennia in spiritual quests, associated with hippies and currently outlawed by the US Government (though legal in Oregon and decriminalized in various cities and states), Silo Pharma still believes in these medicinal mushrooms. But why? The National Center for Biotechnology Information (at The National Library of Medicine), offers answers:
- In addition to the known recreational, spiritual, and religious uses of magic mushrooms, there is significant medicinal value, as evidenced by anecdotal reports and scientific studies.
- With the increase in the rate of mental disorders globally, now exacerbated by COVID-19, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies, particularly psilocybin-assisted psychotherapies, may alleviate some of the challenges that face conventional psychiatric medicine.
- To date, over 27,000 scientific articles have been published on psychedelic drugs, with over 1000 particularly on psilocybin. Currently, psilocybin is the most studied psychedelic.
- Of all psychedelic drugs, psilocybin is reported to have the most favorable safety profile…the vast evidence-based data that exist for psilocybin alone suggest that psilocybin may be the most efficacious psychedelic drug for treating [numerous] disorders…
- In addition to having the potential to treat mood and anxiety disorders, psilocybin has also demonstrated analgesic effects as evidenced by numerous clinical studies on the treatment of cluster (“suicide”) headaches, intractable phantom-limb pain (“PLP”), and chronic pain. … In some cases, psilocybin was comparable to or more efficacious than traditional medications such as opioid analgesics…
- Globally, the psychedelic therapeutic market is predicted to reach a valuation of $6.8 billion by 2027, from USD 2 billion in 2019, at a growth rate of 16.3%. The neurogenic market including mental health drugs, therapeutic services, neurodegeneration drugs and cognitive enhancement was valued at USD 373 billion.
Lowe H, Toyang N, Steele B, et al. The Therapeutic Potential of Psilocybin. Molecules. 2021;26(10):2948. Published 2021 May 15. doi:10.3390/molecules26102948
Psilocybin’s potential in combating neuroinflammation could change medicine as currently practiced, particularly regarding dementia and CNS disorders. According to “Psychedelics for Brain Injury: A Mini-Review,” neuroinflammatory states occur with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. “There are currently three main classes of anti-inflammatory drugs: non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), steroids such as prednisone, and biologics which act like sponges to “soak up” inflammatory cytokines. Psychedelics may represent a fourth class of anti-inflammatory drug.” Eric Weisblum, Silo’s CEO, said, “Successful dosing and collection of blood samples from enrolled [TrPR] patients is an important milestone that demonstrates the progress being made … to examine the effects of psilocybin as an anti-inflammatory agent.”
Silo’s commitment to psilocybin and anti-inflammatory research includes:
- Executing an option agreement with the University of Maryland, Baltimore studying novel system-homing peptides that could potentially “home to the inflamed CNS [central nervous system] and can differentiate between diseased and healthy CNS tissue.” This could be highly beneficial to multiple sclerosis (“MS”) patients as current treatments are “… given orally or parenterally and their use is associated with various side effects … a specific CNS-homing peptide would enhance the efficacy of the treatment and help limit the side effects significantly.(1) According to Silo, “These peptides also have the potential for the development of fusion imaging molecules and/or nanoparticles to study arthritic pathogenesis. In addition, these novel joint-homing peptides may be used to treat autoimmune diseases, including but not limited to Rheumatoid Arthritis.”
- Collaborating with the University of California San Francisco (“UCSF”) to study the effects of psilocybin on inflammatory markers of patients who have exhibited Parkinson’s, bipolar disorder, and chronic back pain. Weisblum says, “Inflammation has specifically been implicated in the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s Disease, chronic pain, and bipolar disorder. Psilocybin and related compounds have shown strong anti-inflammatory effects in non-human animals, raising the possibility that reducing inflammation is a possible mechanism underlying psilocybin’s positive treatment effects in multiple disorders…”
- Teaming with the University of Maryland, Baltimore, for patented Homing Peptides to target Rheumatoid Arthritis. According to a Silo news release, “The ability … to target inflamed endothelium suggests [homing peptides] could be used to target drug delivery to the diseased joints. This approach could enhance the therapeutic effect of current and future therapies and decrease potential systemic toxicity despite systemic administration of the drug. These peptides have the potential for the development of fusion imaging molecules and/or nanoparticles to study arthritic pathogenesis. The peptides could also be customizable and used to deliver nanoparticles for precise imaging. In addition, these novel joint-homing peptides may be used to treat autoimmune diseases, including but not limited to Rheumatoid Arthritis.
(1) Acharya, Bodhraj et al. “A novel CNS-homing peptide for targeting neuroinflammatory lesions in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.” Molecular and cellular probes vol. 51 (2020): 101530. doi:10.1016/j.mcp.2020.101530
For Silo Pharma’s most recent news, click here.
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