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Psilocybin Preserves Mitochondrial Trafficking to Block Chemotherapy Nerve Damage
Key Takeaways
- A paper in Science Volume 393, Issue 6815 (September 2026) reports that psilocybin prevents chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.
- The proposed mechanism is preservation of mitochondrial trafficking within nerve cells rather than direct shielding from chemotherapy toxicity.
- CIPN causes tingling, numbness, and pain that can persist after treatment and sometimes limits how much chemotherapy a patient can tolerate.
- Peripheral neurons depend on long-distance mitochondrial transport, and failure of that transport concentrates damage at the nerve terminals farthest from the cell body.
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DT Editorial Team··via science.org