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Oxytocin, from love potion to medicine | |
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2022-01-09 | |
发布年 | 2022 |
语种 | 英语 |
国家 | 法国 |
领域 | 地球科学 ; 资源环境 |
正文(英文) |
Oxytocin is involved in early attachment between mother and infant.
Oxytocin appears to be involved in several types of attachment, including love. Marcel Hibert explains its chemical and biological mechanisms and the therapeutic hopes it inspires, notably in the treatment of autism.
You have been studying oxytocin and its role in behavioural disorders for more than twenty years. You tell this story in Ocytocine mon amour which was published in September 2021. What led you to focus on this hormone, which was long qualified as the ‘love molecule’? How could this difference in behaviour be explained? Insel and his team found it was due to oxytocin and vasopressin,2 two neurohormones previously known for their roles in delivery and urination, respectively. Injecting oxytocin into the brains of mountain voles reversed these animals’ behaviour: they became less fickle and more caring towards their offspring. By contrast, common voles in which oxytocin receptors had been blocked became polygamous, less concerned about their progeny and less sociable. Based on these two molecules, I finally had a lead to follow in order to study the molecular mechanisms of love. Oxytocin, vasopressin: what distinguishes these two hormones? So is oxytocin really the love hormone? More generally, oxytocin subsequently participates in the construction and reinforcement of specific links and social interactions. It modulates altruism, empathy, friendship and trust in others, as well as the mechanisms underpinning love. Clearly, other elements may be determinant, such as genetic predispositions, personal history, environment, education, chance or necessity. Considerable attention should be paid to any extrapolations: a nasal spray of oxytocin will not procure success in either life or love. It is useless to administer it without reason or control. Yet this nasal spray has been available for several years. What makes it so difficult to use oxytocin for new therapeutic treatments? We started this project by implementing a variety of strategies: classic relationships between structure and activity, screening of the Chimiothèque Nationale, rational design based on three-dimensional models of oxytocin in its receptor, etc. In some ways, all these approaches reached successful conclusions as they enabled us to discover molecules that bound strongly to the receptor, although these ligands proved to be antagonistic, which means they blocked the function instead of activating it. Our colleagues showed that in the case of oxytocin, the receptor was particularly well protected by acting as a dimer. In other words, it was necessary for two hormones to bind simultaneously to two adjacent receptors to trigger the cellular response anticipated. Nature had indeed done a good job in thus preventing any unexpected activation. After twenty years of research, we finally managed to overcome this obstacle and identified a synthetic molecule, called LIT-001, which acts in the same way as oxytocin. This was the first one that could restore social interaction in an animal model of autism5 following peripheral administration. Other, more potent and specific molecules have since been discovered and will soon be patented; at best, their preclinical and clinical development potential will require eight to ten years of industrial investment. Which other pathologies might benefit from treatment with your oxytocin mimic? Another hope resides in the treatment of post-partum depression, which affects between 10% and 15% of women. It has been shown that oxytocin, which is already present during pregnancy and is produced in greater quantities during skin to skin contact with the infant, reduces the gravity and duration of depressive episodes. This hormone could thus be used to treat pain, help with withdrawal from drugs, be used in certain types of schizophrenia, social and post-traumatic anxiety, anorexia and bulimia, or even heartache, etc. Meanwhile, we should emphasise that love is not reducible to a hormone, a gene or a need to ensure survival of the species. If there is no pathology, no medicine is necessary. Through exchanged glances, touching, kisses, orgasms and our social interactions, let’s give free rein to the oxytocin we have in us. Further reading: Ocytocine mon amour, Marcel Hibert, humenSciences, 2021, 288 p. Footnotes
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来源平台 | CNRS News |
文献类型 | 新闻 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/343456 |
专题 | 地球科学 资源环境科学 |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | admin. Oxytocin, from love potion to medicine. 2022. |
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