Fungi to be with: Are mushrooms more ‘magical’ than we thought?

Psilocybin is a naturally-occurring psychoactive compound found in more than 100 species of mushrooms. It’s a natural tryptamine alkaloid and has come to the attention of medical researchers as a potential part of a treatment plan for areas such as anxiety, depression, and addiction, and even problematic alcohol and tobacco use – among others.

Psilocybin has high affinity for several serotonin receptors and has similar properties to LSD and mescaline, albeit with a different chemical structure.

The regulatory approach to psilocybin varies among different jurisdictions, as does its availability. The research continues, and long-term studies will be particularly welcome.

However, new research has thrown a mini spanner into the works and suggests that psilocybin may have unforeseen benefits in the area of lifespan and the ageing process.

A team of researchers from Emory University in the US has shown that psilocybin has the ability to delay cellular ageing and extend lifespan significantly. Specifically, psilocin, a by-product of consuming psilocybin, administered at various doses extended the cellular lifespan of human skin and lung cells by a whopping 50 per cent.

The study, published in npj Aging, explains how the team also ran the first long-term in vivo study looking at the systemic results of using psilocybin in mouse models aged approximately 19 months. This is comparable to 60-65 years in human terms. They showed that mice who were on a particular regimen – low-dose psilocybin 5mg and a subsequent monthly dose of 15mg for 10 months – survived for 30 per cent longer than the mice who got no psilocybin.

Not only did the mice live longer, but the ones who received the doses also had fewer white hairs, better quality of fur, and improved regrowth of lost hair. Telomeres are also a research area of increasing interest when it comes to ageing and you guessed it – the mice on psilocybin preserved telomere length better than those who got none. Psilocybin influences many of the established hallmarks of ageing, such as DNA repair and oxidative stress, the authors said.

The researchers point out that while the majority of what we know about psilocybin is confined to its effects on the brain, most of the cells in the human body express serotonin receptors. This opens the door to unravelling how psilocybin can help to influence the systemic ageing process. Indeed, increasing evidence indicates that clinically diagnosed depression is linked to accelerated telomere shortening, while positive mental health is correlated with longer telomere length.

In their work, the researchers had one eye on the ‘psilocybin-telomere hypothesis’, which postulates that appropriate doses of psilocybin influence telomere length in a quantifiable way. But until now, this has been a neglected field of research.

“Beyond its neurological and psychological benefits, our findings suggest that psilocybin influences systemic ageing processes, potentially explaining its long-lasting therapeutic effects across multiple disease indications,” they wrote.

“Although the impact of psilocybin on peripheral organs remains largely unexplored, these studies implicate untapped therapeutic potential for psilocybin’s systemic impacts. Psilocybin may represent a ‘disruptive’ pharmacotherapy as a novel geroprotective agent to promote healthy ageing and/or as a potential therapeutic intervention for age-related diseases.”

Co-investigator in the study, Dr Ali John Zarrabi, Director of Psychedelic Research at Emory University’s Department of Psychiatry, commented: “This study provides strong preclinical evidence that psilocybin may contribute to healthier ageing – not just a longer lifespan, but a better quality-of-life in later years.”

Emory University is also involved in Phase II and III clinical trials into psilocybin treatment specifically for depression, with the hope that psilocybin therapy will be approved by the FDA in 2027.

With the vast and ever-increasing amounts of money being spent on anti-ageing research and products, this research has real potential to broaden the conversation around living longer with a better quality-of-life.