# Oxytocin Deficit in Heavy Alcohol Drinkers

> **NIH NIH R03** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $87,500

## Abstract

Project Summary
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a major public health concern in the US and worldwide with extremely limited
number of FDA approved medications that are not effective in everyone. Recently the neuropeptide, oxytocin,
was proposed as a potential treatment for alcohol use disorder, but the neuronal mechanism underlying its
therapeutic potential is elusive. Elucidating chronic effects of alcohol on levels of oxytocin in the central
nervous system is essential to help understand its therapeutic mechanism and eventually identify patients that
would receive the greatest benefit from the treatment. However, acquiring direct measures of oxytocin in the
central nervous system of humans is complex or impossible, and frequently brain levels of oxytocin are
assumed based on known blood concentrations. Nevertheless, a relation between the central and blood levels
of oxytocin is unclear and animal studies are needed to reveal chronic effects of alcohol on levels of oxytocin in
the central nervous system and to explore the relation between the central and blood levels of oxytocin.
Nonhuman primates provide an exceptionally beneficial translational model for human alcohol use disorder
due to their genetic, anatomical, and physiological similarities to humans, and because they exhibit wide
individual differences in the amount of alcohol they voluntarily drink. In this project we propose to measure
levels of endogenous oxytocin in the pituitary tissue, cerebral spinal fluid and blood samples collected from
monkeys that underwent a standard alcohol self-administration protocol for 12 months. First, we will test if
levels of oxytocin in the pituitary and CSF decrease with an increase in alcohol intake (Aim 1). Then we will
test whether levels of oxytocin in the pituitary and CSF correspond to blood concentration of oxytocin in
primates (Aim 2). Thus, this project will provide important evidence on oxytocin levels across heavy drinking
individuals and would significantly aid in the approach toward personalized use of the potential oxytocin
therapy for alcohol use disorder.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10229474
- **Project number:** 5R03AA028071-02
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** KATHLEEN A GRANT
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $87,500
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-05 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10229474

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10229474, Oxytocin Deficit in Heavy Alcohol Drinkers (5R03AA028071-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10229474. Licensed CC0.

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