The storyline for my recent posts has taken on a life of its own

I try to prepare a predicted list of topics, but then I write a post and suddenly discover a side topic that interests me very much, and I want to dive into it, so I abandon the plan. This is also the case of the current post, which deals with a mathematical and abstract topic. On the other hand, instead of losing the attention of readers who do not have a deep understanding of the quantum mechanics of biochemistry or neurophysiology, I will explain these topics in layperson's terms, aware of the fact that some find these topics daunting (and hopefully without upsetting the professionals who, also read my posts occasionally).

Remember the last post about mad honey?

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/15qx4Cm2oS/

Well, while researching mad honey, I found that what makes this honey "crazy" (the active ingredients) is a family of compounds called grayanotoxins (and I mention that they come from the pollen of rhododendrons).

Grayanotoxins are known to be psychoactive despite the fact that they do not contain Nitrogen. A molecule containing only a single nitrogen atom is called a monoamine; all the small neurotransmitter molecules we know and study in neurophysiology are monoamines. Also, almost all psychoactive drugs are monoamines. Why? The answer concerns how neurons "talk" to one another. Nerve endings are disc-shaped surfaces positioned very close to each other without touching one another.

These locations in the brain where the end of one nerve is almost touching the beginning of the next nerve are called ‘synapses.’ Nerves (or neurons) “talk to each other” through a process called neurotransmission. Neurotransmission involves the neuron on one side of the synapse “firing” neurotransmitter molecules across the synapse to the neuron on the other side of the synapse. The neurotransmitters are a chemical signal. They are acknowledged by the neuron on the other side of the synapse by way of the neurotransmitters physically lodging into specialized molecules called receptors. You can think of receptors as the doorbell system of large houses. When someone standing outside the house wants to announce their presence, they put their finger on the doorbell button, and an audio signal is sent throughout the house from the inside - “Ding Dong”. In our case, the person standing outside is a neurotransmitter, and the sound emitted inside is also a molecule - but it's a molecule that serves as a signal to say “there's someone at the receptor.”

In reality, neurotransmitters are molecules that settle on or in receptors, thereby activating them. Once the receptor has been activated, the neurotransmitter has done its job, and it needs to move out of its comfortable lodging in the receptor. Neurotransmitters do not know that their job is done, and they have to move out. There are specialized enzymes called monoamine-oxidases that find the neurotransmitters and oxidize them. Oxidation is chemical parlance for the removal of an electron.

Once the monoamineoxidase has changed the electric charge of the neurotransmitter, the neurotransmitter no longer feels "comfortable" (electromagnetically speaking) in the place where it has come to rest in the receptor. In a world of carbon, hydrogen, phosphorus, and oxygen atoms, the neurotransmitters stand out because of their nitrogen. this atom "stands out" to monoamineoxidase enzymes as a kind of sign telling them "oxidize here".

The nitrogen atom can be likened to the metal ring that serves as an opener in a can of Coca-Cola. When we want to open the can, our finger knows how to recognize the ring and pull on it, just like the enzyme responsible for activating the receptor knows how to recognize the single nitrogen atom and take the electron from it.

This is all well and good, but it turns out that there is an exception to every rule. The exception I have known hereto is a molecule called salvinorin, the active ingredient in the Salvia divinorum plant. Salvinorin does not have a single nitrogen atom and still manages to function as a psychoactive. What is its release mechanism? I have no idea… But I have always treated this matter as a singular anomaly. Now I found out that salvinorin is not alone because the grayanotoxins, which are responsible for the psychoactive effects of mad honey, also do not contain a single atom of nitrogen. Which, of course, made me think about nitrogen and write about the central role it plays in the biochemistry of psychoactives.