Cuddle hormone to facilitate development of new drugs

The “cuddle hormone” oxytocin is involved in strengthening the mother-child relationship and regulating social bonding. It also plays an important role in different mental health disorders like autism, Asperger’s syndrome, social anxiety and addiction vulnerability. The hormone exerts all these effects by binding to the oxytocin receptor.

Researchers have been trying to develop drugs that bind specifically to the oxytocin receptor for decades. This has proved to be very difficult and, as the University of Zurich writes in a press release, very few drugs targeting the oxytocin receptor have been approved for clinical use.

Researchers at the University of Zurich have now determined the three-dimensional structure of the oxytocin receptor. Specifically, they investigated the structure of the receptor when bound to the drug candidate retosiban, which was developed for the suppression of preterm labor.

“The elucidation of the oxytocin receptor's structure was an extremely challenging undertaking, which only succeeded thanks to a combination of directed evolution and protein engineering methods we developed over the last few years,” explains Andreas Plückthun, professor at the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Zurich.

The scientists also made an additional discovery. “To allow efficient propagation of oxytocin-induced signaling, the oxytocin receptor has to interact with two additional substances – cholesterol and magnesium,” says PhD candidate Yann Waltenspühl.

These findings will now be used to facilitate the development of novel drugs to treat a variety of diseases, including autism