Could one drug keep you tanned, thin and sexy? Bliss in a pill?
by Jerome BurneBEING SLIM, tanned and feeling sexy is the stuff of wishlists and if current drug research pans out, one pill could fulfil the fantasy. All three characteristics are controlled by a single hormone called melanocortin, which seems destined to become as much of a household word as serotonin.
Last month an American company, Palatin Technologies, announced that it was making progress with a pill for obesity and a nasal spray for impotence, both of which involved variations on a chemical copy of “alpha MSH” (melanocyte stimulating hormone). The spray, known as PT-141, is closest to the market, although so far it has been tested only on men with sexual problems. Palatin Technologies also reported that PT-141 has had trials with Viagra and subjects had reported “a better quality of erection” than with Viagra alone.
However, it is expected to work on women as well. This week the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that female rats given PT-141 showed “significantly increased sexual solicitations”. Given Pfizer’s recent decision not to continue developing a female Viagra (it was defeated by the fact that, unlike men, women aren’t necessarily psychologically turned on just by an increased flow of blood to their sexual organs), the hope is that PT-141 will be more successful, as it targets the brain.
The melanocortin system refers to a series of receptors in one of the major control centres of the brain where the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland swap chemical messages about the state of the body. It regulates not only desires relating to food and sex, but also characteristics such as skin and hair pigment.
The development of PT-141 stemmed from an attempt to develop a drug that would help fair-skinned people to acquire a tan. Researchers found that red-headed male patients given alpha MSH to boost their tanning ability regularly got erections as a side-effect. The reason was that the drug was attaching both to melanocortin receptors in the skin (MC1R) and to ones in the brain that are involved with libido (MC4R).
The potential for the fantasy lifestyle drug comes about because MC4R is also involved with regulating appetite for food. Mutations in the gene controlling MC4R can result in either compulsive binge eating or anorexia.
Early attempts to develop alpha MSH as an anti-obesity drug also ran into the erection problem. In the real world it became necessary to separate the two actions, which is what Palatin Technologies is hoping to achieve.
“Obesity drugs are hard to develop,” says George Yancopoulos, of the Regeneron Laboratories in New York, which is pursuing an obesity drug. “Tampering with such an essential system for survival without disrupting other systems, sometimes fatally, is very hard.”
HOME
PT-141
Nasal spray
Sensualism.com
Sexual Healing(?)
PT-141 plus Viagra
Palatin Technologies
Designer Aphrodisiacs
Apomorphine (Uprima)
PT-141 Arouses Women
The 21st Century Aphrodisiac?
New sex drugs: Palatin's PT-141
PT-141 increases female sexual desire
Reverse engineering the female orgasm
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