Data to be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of The Endocrine Society show that healthy men treated with intranasal oxytocin consumed fewer calories and had reduced insulin sensitivity after use of the nasal spray. The randomized, placebo-controlled study, conducted by researchers from Harvard Medical School, involved 25 men, half of whom were normal weight and half of whom were overweight.
The men using the oxytocin nasal spray reduced their intake on average by 122 calories and 9 grams of fat when they ate breakfast after using the spray compared to the men who used the placebo nasal spray. The men’s appetite and appetite-regulating hormones were unaffected.
Lead investigator Elizabeth Lawson, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said, “Our results are really exciting. Further study is needed, but I think oxytocin is a promising treatment for obesity and its metabolic complications.”
Novartis markets Syntocinon oxytocin nasal spray in Europe but withdrew it from the US market in 1997. Turing Pharmaceuticals is now developing the nasal spray for the US market as a lactation aid. Turing acquired Syntocinon from Retrophin in October 2014; Retrophin acquired the product in 2013 when it acquired Kyalin Biosciences.
Read the Endocrine Society press release.
