Investigating Intranasal Kisspeptin as a Novel and Effective Delivery Route for Stimulating Reproductive Hormone Secretion in Humans
Lead Researcher : Dr Edouard Mills
Supported by the Metabolic & Endocrine Theme
Fertility problems are very common in the UK, with 1 in 7 couples having difficulty conceiving. This may be due to male factors, female factors, a combination of both factors, or may be unexplained. For both women and men, obesity can be associated with higher chances of difficulty conceiving. However, current treatments are limited by their effectiveness, side effects, cost, and difficulty to access through the NHS. Therefore, there is a major need to develop new, safe and effective treatments to help people having difficulty conceiving.
Kisspeptin is a naturally-occurring hormone that stimulates the release of other reproductive hormones inside the body. Because of this, there has been significant research interest in using kisspeptin-based medicines to treat common fertility problems, including difficulty conceiving due to obesity. However, currently, kisspeptin can only be administered by injections, meaning that alternative delivery routes need to be developed.
Therefore, I will investigate the potential benefit of kisspeptin administered as a nasal spray. To do this, I will recruit 12 healthy women, 12 healthy men, 12 women with obesity-related hypogonadism (i.e., when the body’s sex glands [gonads] produce little or no sex hormones) and 12 men with obesity-related hypogonadism. Each participant will attend for five study visits each and will receive 0.9% saline as a placebo (i.e., a false treatment), or kisspeptin-54 (at doses 3.2, 6.4, 12.8, and 25.6 nmol/kg) via the nasal route. This will be followed by blood sampling for reproductive hormones via a venous cannula every 15-minutes for 4-hours. This will allow me to conclude whether nasally delivered kisspeptin is viable and the most effective dose.
Determining whether nasally delivered kisspeptin can stimulate reproductive hormones could potentially change future practice by providing a patient self-administered nasal medicine that would be far preferable to current invasive methods (injection) for patients and clinicians alike.