MMAI

 ( 2-aminoindanes ) 

5-Methoxy-6-methyl-2-aminoindane ( MMAI) is a drug of the 2-aminoindane group developed in the 1990s by a team led by David E. Nichols at Purdue University. It acts as a less neurotoxic and highly selective serotonin releasing agent (SSRA) and produces entactogenic effects in humans. It has been sold as a designer drug and research chemical online since 2010.

The drug is one of the only known monoamine releasing agents (MRAs) with greater than 100-fold selectivity for the serotonin transporter (SERT) over the dopamine transporter (DAT). Receptor interaction data for MMAI have also been reported.

MMAI has been shown to relieve stress-induced depression in rats more robustly than sertraline, and as a result it has been suggested that SSRAs like MMAI and 4-methylthioamphetamine (4-MTA) could be developed as novel with a faster onset of therapeutic action and superior effectiveness to current antidepressants such as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

MMAI alone does not appear to produce serotonergic neurotoxicity with either acute or chronic administration in animals. However, subsequent research found that a single high dose of MMAI could produce significant serotonergic neurotoxicity. In addition, combination of MMAI with the dopamine releasing agent dextroamphetamine has been found to produce dose dependence serotonergic neurotoxicity in animals. Hence, MMAI is not a fully non-neurotoxic MDMA analogue.

MMAI is the 2-aminoindane analogue of 3-methoxy-4-methylamphetamine (MMA).