A Psychedelic Compound Found in ‘Magic’ Mushrooms Might Prevent Debilitating Nerve Damage and Pain Caused by Chemotherapy

A study in mice and human tissue suggests psilocybin protects against peripheral neuropathy, a common side effect of chemotherapy. The findings are so promising that researchers are starting a mid-stage clinical trial this year

Sara Hashemi | Daily Correspondent

September 10, 2026 11:48 a.m.

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While chemotherapy has saved countless lives, it often comes with harmful side effects, including nerve damage in the limbs. This painful condition, called peripheral neuropathy, can cause long-lasting numbness, tingling and movement issues in the hands and feet.

But a psychedelic compound found in so-called magic mushrooms might provide protection against the nerve damage, according to a study published in the journal Science on September 3. The work found that giving mice just two doses of psilocybin shortly before chemotherapy prevented the animals from developing pain hypersensitivity.

The outcomes are so promising that the researchers plan to start a mid-stage clinical trial this year. Currently, no effective treatments—preventative or otherwise—exist for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, estimated to affect up to 70 percent of patients.

“If these findings can be replicated in clinical trials, the implications could be substantial,” says Maria Maiaru, a pharmacologist at the University of Reading in England who wasn’t involved in the research, to Carissa Wong at New Scientist. “Patients could avoid long-lasting sensory problems and chronic pain that often remain after cancer has been successfully treated.”

During a news conference about the results, study co-author Moran Amit, a surgeon and neuroscientist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, described how the discovery came as a surprise. A researcher in his lab reported that mice that had received psilocybin before chemotherapy showed no signs of nerve damage.

“I don’t believe you. Do it again,” he recalled telling her, reports Andrew Jacobs at the New York Times.

So, she repeated the process several times, testing mice with different types of tumors and chemotherapy drugs. The creatures never developed neuropathy.

In the new study, the researchers gave mice with abdominal tumors two doses of the compound administered one week apart. Another group of mice got saline injections. All animals then received six monthly rounds of treatment with cisplatin, a chemotherapy drug that causes nerve damage, among other issues.

The team observed changes in the mice’s pain sensitivity using a tool that measures sensitivity to touch. Mice that received psilocybin before chemotherapy responded similarly to those that received neither chemotherapy nor psilocybin. In contrast, mice that received cisplatin without psilocybin were much more sensitive to the tool’s touch. The psychedelic didn’t affect cisplatin’s ability to shrink tumors.

To understand why psilocybin had this effect, the researchers took a close look at nerve cells from mice. The psychedelic appears to help maintain the movement of mitochondria, the organelles that provide energy to cells, along nerve fibers, allowing their endings to remain functional. Mitochondrial transportation is typically disrupted by cisplatin.

“That’s quite surprising—I wouldn’t have expected psilocybin to regulate mitochondrial movement,” says Joe Cichon, a neuroanesthesiologist at the University of Pennsylvania who wasn’t involved in the study, to Max Kozlov at Nature.

Further experiments using nerve cells from 29 people undergoing surgery at M.D. Anderson hinted that psilocybin had a similar effect on human mitochondria, too.

While the mouse results are promising, they still need to be replicated in humans. “There has been a large gap between success in preclinical models [of chemotherapy pain] and translation to effective therapies for humans,” explains Susanna Park, a neuroscientist at the University of Sydney in Australia who wasn’t involved in the study, to Catherine Offord at Science. She tells the outlet that she would like to see more data on psilocybin’s impact on larger nerve fibers to confirm the compound’s protective effects.

The team behind the new work will soon find out whether the psychedelic prevents neuropathy in people. They plan to launch a mid-stage clinical trial in November, which is slated to end about four years later.

Still, earlier research in humans has already helped patients. Naomi Aziz, a 35-year-old who developed neuropathy during treatment for endometrial cancer and participated in experiments at M.D. Anderson, tells the Times that psilocybin has eased her pain—both physical and emotional. It aided her journey in coming to terms with other side effects of her treatments, like infertility, she says.

“I felt crippled by losing a connection to a human experience that once felt guaranteed,” Aziz tells the outlet. “For a long time, I felt that I had no future. Now I’m living beyond cancer.”

Sara Hashemi is a science writer and fact-checker currently based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Sierra, The Body, Maisonneuve magazine and more.