| New drug enhances sex drive and assists weight loss |
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| Thursday, 03 May 2007 | |
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As well as showing an increased interest in mating, the animals displayed less interest in eating, with food intake cut by up to a third among the animals in the tests. Professor Millar said: "This hormone is distributed in the brain in areas that we suspect affect reproductive behaviour. "The musk shrew is a very primitive ancestor of primates and when given to the females they displayed reproductive behaviour, and the males would mate with them." Researchers at the university are now working to reproduce the drug in the form of an oral pill to be prescribed for libido enhancement and weight loss. Professor Millar added "It is considered a major pharmaceutical endeavour to address the area of libido. So the next stage is to produce a drug that simulates the actions of this hormone. It is most likely that we will do it in partnership with a pharmaceutical firm. It could be available to women within ten years." The drug has so far only been tested on female animals, so the researchers are unsure as to whether the new pill would deliver the same benefits to men who take it. |
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