TY - JOUR
T1 - A new horizon
T2 - Oxytocin as a novel therapeutic option for obesity and diabetes
AU - Cai, Dongsheng
AU - Purkayastha, Sudarshana
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors sincerely thank Cai lab members for related research. D.C. is supported by NIH R01 DK078750 and R01 AG031774 and American Diabetes Association grant 1-12-BS-20 . D.C. is a recipient of Irma T. Hirschl Scholarship .
PY - 2013/6
Y1 - 2013/6
N2 - The story of oxytocin (OXT) began long ago in evolutionary terms with its recognition as a classical neurohypophyseal hormone important for lactation and uterine contraction. With the recent discovery of its local actions in the brain, its previously unappreciated diverse functions in regulating social behaviors and metabolic physiology are emerging. In light of metabolic control, OXT has been shown to induce feeding restriction and body weight lowering through acting on brain regulatory regions, in particular the hypothalamus. Studies from pharmacologic interventions and genetic manipulations demonstrated that OXT can play significant roles in affecting glucose metabolism as well as insulin secretion and lipolysis, many of those functions being regulated both centrally and peripherally. Also excitingly, recent therapeutic success was obtained in clinical endeavor showing that OXT nasal spray effectively induced weight loss and metabolic improvement in human patients with obesity, thus further indicating OXT as a tangible drug target for treating obesity and metabolic complications. In addition to the native form, OXT-derived analogues have been found effective in inducing body weight control and glucose balance. Altogether, all recent advances in the understanding of OXT and metabolic regulation has laid a promising foundation for the therapeutic strategy of developing innovative OXT peptidyl drugs for the treatment of obesity and related metabolic diseases
AB - The story of oxytocin (OXT) began long ago in evolutionary terms with its recognition as a classical neurohypophyseal hormone important for lactation and uterine contraction. With the recent discovery of its local actions in the brain, its previously unappreciated diverse functions in regulating social behaviors and metabolic physiology are emerging. In light of metabolic control, OXT has been shown to induce feeding restriction and body weight lowering through acting on brain regulatory regions, in particular the hypothalamus. Studies from pharmacologic interventions and genetic manipulations demonstrated that OXT can play significant roles in affecting glucose metabolism as well as insulin secretion and lipolysis, many of those functions being regulated both centrally and peripherally. Also excitingly, recent therapeutic success was obtained in clinical endeavor showing that OXT nasal spray effectively induced weight loss and metabolic improvement in human patients with obesity, thus further indicating OXT as a tangible drug target for treating obesity and metabolic complications. In addition to the native form, OXT-derived analogues have been found effective in inducing body weight control and glucose balance. Altogether, all recent advances in the understanding of OXT and metabolic regulation has laid a promising foundation for the therapeutic strategy of developing innovative OXT peptidyl drugs for the treatment of obesity and related metabolic diseases
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84880208775&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84880208775&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ddmec.2013.05.006
DO - 10.1016/j.ddmec.2013.05.006
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84880208775
SN - 1740-6765
VL - 10
SP - e63-e68
JO - Drug Discovery Today: Disease Mechanisms
JF - Drug Discovery Today: Disease Mechanisms
IS - 1-2
ER -