Oxytocin response to youth-mother interactions in clinically anxious youth is associated with separation anxiety and dyadic behavior

BACKGROUND

Anxiety disorders are common in youth and cause significant distress and impairment to the individual and family. Oxytocin (OT), a nine amino acid peptide, is implicated in anxiety regulation and modulation of close interpersonal and attachment behavior. Anxiety disorders have been linked to low levels of salivary OT in youth. Research has also linked oxytocinergic functioning to social support, warm contact, and bonding, and indicated that contact with attachment figures stimulates OT response. We examined OT response to a brief, positive youth-mother interaction in clinically anxious youth. We investigated whether quality of the youth-mother interaction as well as the presence of particular anxiety disorders, are associated with youth OT response.

METHOD

Salivary OT from 41 youth with primary DSM-5 anxiety disorders was assayed before and after a 7-min youth-mother interaction that was later systematically coded by two reliable coders. Youth and mothers also completed rating scales of youth anxiety symptoms.

RESULTS

Affective touch, maternal sensitivity, maternal intrusiveness, youth engagement, and youth initiative all contributed significantly to predicting youth OT response. Repeated measures analyses showed that when affective touch was high youth had greater OT response. OT response was positively associated with the presence of separation anxiety disorder (SAD) and with child ratings of separation anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight the importance of maternal and dyadic behavior patterns to oxytocinergic response in clinically anxious youth, shed light on the association between OT and SAD, and point to possible intervention strategies.

Conformational studies on arginine vasopressin and arginine vasotocin by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy

The assignments and partial conformational analysis of the 220-MHz (1)H nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum of the neurohypophyseal hormones arginine vasopressin and arginine vasotocin in uniformaly deuterated dimethylsulfoxide are reported. The chemical shifts, vicinal coupling constants, temperature coefficients of chemical shifts, and proton-deuterium exchange rates for protons of arginine vasopressin and arginine vasotocin are compared with those for the corresponding protons of the related neurohypophyseal hormones lysine vasopressin and oxytocin. Although to a first approximation the backbone conformations of the hormones exhibit conformational similarities, spectral differences are seen for protons in the amino acid residues that comprise the 20-membered ring moieties. It is inferred that there is a gradual shift in the average conformation in going from arginine vasopressin and lysine vasopressin via arginine vasotocin to oxytocin. As judged on the basis of earlier studies, it is evident that the C-terminal acyclic tail moiety exhibits an enhanced mobility over that of the ring moiety in all of the neurohypophyseal hormones studied and, moreover, that this motion is greater in arginine vasopressin and arginine vasotocin than in oxytocin.

Proton magnetic resonance study of peptide conformation: effect of trifluoroethanol on oxytocin and 8-lysine-vasopressin

The usefulness of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol titration as a means of distinguishing between intramolecular peptide-peptide hydrogen bonding on the one hand and intermolecular peptide-peptide and peptide-solvent hydrogen bonding on the other has been investigated with neurohypophyseal hormones, and the results have been compared with those of other methods. The chemical shifts (220 MHz) of the resonances of amide NH and aromatic CH protons of oxytocin, lysine vasopressin, deamino-lysine vasopressin, and deamino-8-tosyllysine vasopressin were monitored as the solvent composition was progressively varied from 100% dimethylsulfoxide to 100% 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol. The overall backbone conformation of oxytocin appears to be retained, and possibly somewhat stabilized, during the solvent transition, while the backbone, particularly the acyclic component, of lysine vasopressin and its analogs is subject to solvent-induced perturbation.

Method for correlation of proton magnetic resonance assignments in different solvents: conformational transition of oxytocin and lysine vasopressin from dimethylsulfoxide to water

The peptide amide, primary carboxamide, and aromatic proton resonances were assigned to specific hydrogens of oxytocin and lysine vasopressin (Lys-VP) in water at 23 degrees at pH 2.5 and 4.2, respectively. We started with the spectral assignments of oxytocin and Lys-VP determined in deuterated dimethylsulfoxide (Me(2)SO) and monitored the course of each of these resonances as the proportion of water to Me(2)SO was gradually increased. Changes in each of the two hormones in chemical shifts and in some coupling constants indicate that conformational alterations occur in both oxytocin and Lys-VP during the solvent transition from Me(2)SO to water. This study is a specific application of a general method for correlating spectral assignments in different solvents and for monitoring conformational changes accompanying solvent transitions. Application of this technique requires only that the solvent components be miscible over the entire transitional range, that spectral changes of the solute be simple enough to follow, and that the associated structural changes of the solute be "rapid on the proton magnetic resonance time-scale."

Conformation of lysine vasopressin: a comparison with oxytocin

Starting with assignments of proton nuclear magnetic resonance previously made for oxytocin in deuterated dimethylsulfoxide at 220 MHz, we have assigned resonances for the mammalian antidiuretic hormone, lysine vasopressin. The results demonstrate that spectral assignments of neurohypophyseal hormones and their congeners can, within certain limits, be derived from each other. Comparison of the spectra of lysine vasopressin and oxytocin suggests that the gross backbone conformations of their 20-membered ring components are for the most part similar in deuterated dimethylsulfoxide, whereas the C-terminal acyclic amino-acid sequence of lysine vasopressin is more flexible than that of oxytocin.