Nasal spray aids mental illness

Researchers at the University of Oslo have tested a device for delivering hormone treatments for mental illness through the nose

The researchers discovered that low doses of oxytocin, a neuropeptide produced in the hypothalamus, may help patients with mental illness to better perceive social signals.

However, as oxytocin is a relatively large molecule, it has trouble crossing the barrier between the brain and circulating blood. Therefore researchers have administered oxytocin to patients through the nose as this route offers a direct pathway to the brain that bypasses this barrier.

As part of this project Professor Ole Andreassen and his research team have collaborated with the company OptiNose.

OptiNose have developed a new device designed to improve medicine delivery to the brain via the nose.

OptiNose administers oxytocin high up into the patient's nasal cavity as when the medicine is targeted deep inside the nose, it enables brain delivery along nerve pathways from the uppermost part of the nasal cavity.

Conventional nasal spray devices are not suited to consistently deliver medicine high up enough into the nose but this device also expands the nasal cavity, facilitating nose-to-brain medicine delivery. As the user exhales into the device, this closes the soft palate and prevents the medicine from being lost down the throat.

As less medicine is lost along the way, patients can take smaller doses and accordingly experience fewer side effects the researchers have said.

Daniel Quintana, one of the research team and postdoctor at University of Oslo, said: "We are now running tests in volunteers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders."

Professor Andreassen said: "We hope that this research project is the first step in the development of a series of new medicines that may be of great help to more people with mental illness."

The study has been published in Translational Psychiatry.