Effects of Intranasal Administration of a Single Dose of Oxytocin Using a Novel Device in Healthy Adults

Oxytocin (OT) is a small, naturally occurring peptide currently in clinical use to stimulate lactation in breastfeeding women. The intranasal administration of OT has recently attracted attention as a potential novel treatment in several psychiatric disorders including autism. However, given the anatomy of the nasal cavity, the current design of nasal sprays would be expected to provide an inadequate delivery of medication to the areas of the nasal cavity where direct transport into the brain via the olfactory nerve could potentially occur. OptiNose has developed an intranasal delivery device that provides improved reproducibility of nasal delivery, improved deposition to the upper posterior regions of the nasal cavity where the olfactory nerve innervates the nasal cavity. The primary objective of this study is to identify any differences between single dose 8 or 24 international units (IU) oxytocin delivered intranasally with the optimised OptiNose device and 1 IU oxytocin administered as slow intravenous infusion in healthy volunteers. This will be measured in terms of brain activity as measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), performance on cognitive tests, and physiological markers.