Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) increases oxytocin, empathy, and prosociality. Oxytocin plays a critical role in emotion processing and social behavior and has been shown to mediate the prosocial effects of MDMA in animals. Genetic variants, such as single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) may influence the emotional and social effects of MDMA in humans. The effects of common genetic variants of the OXTR (rs53576, rs1042778, and rs2254298 SNPs) on the emotional, empathogenic, and prosocial effects of MDMA were characterized in up to 132 healthy subjects in a pooled analysis of eight double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. In a subset of 53 subjects, MDMA produced significantly greater feelings of trust in rs1042778 TT genotypes compared with G allele carriers. The rs53576 and rs225498 SNPs did not moderate the subjective effects of MDMA in up to 132 subjects. None of the SNPs moderated MDMA-induced impairments in negative facial emotion recognition or enhancements in emotional empathy in the Multifaceted Empathy Test in 69 subjects. MDMA significantly increased plasma oxytocin concentrations. MDMA and oxytocin concentrations did not differ between OXTR gene variants. The present results provide preliminary evidence that OXTR gene variations may modulate aspects of the prosocial subjective effects of MDMA in humans. However, interpretation should be cautious due to the small sample size. Additionally, OXTR SNPs did not moderate the subjective overall effect of MDMA (any drug effect) or feelings of “closeness to others”.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, No: NCT00886886, NCT00990067, NCT01136278, NCT01270672, NCT01386177, NCT01465685, NCT01771874, and NCT01951508.

亚甲二氧基甲基苯丙胺（MDMA）会增加催产素，移情和亲近感。催产素在情绪加工和社交行为中起着至关重要的作用，并已被证明可以介导动物对MDMA的亲社会作用。催产素受体（OXTR）的遗传变异，例如单核苷酸多态性（SNP），可能会影响MDMA对人类的情感和社会影响。通过对八名双盲，安慰剂对照的八位受试者进行汇总分析，确定了OXTR的常见遗传变异（rs53576，rs1042778和rs2254298 SNP）对MDMA的情感，移情和亲社会作用的影响。学习。在53个主题的子集中，摇头丸对人们产生了更大的信任感rs1042778 TT基因型与G等位基因携带者相比。该rs53576和rs225498在多达132位受试者中，SNP并未减轻MDMA的主观效果。在69名受试者的多方面共情测验中，没有一个SNP缓解了MDMA引起的负面面部情绪识别障碍或情绪共情增强。MDMA显着增加血浆催产素浓度。OXTR基因变体之间的MDMA和催产素浓度没有差异。本研究结果提供了初步的证据，表明OXTR基因变异可能会调节MDMA对人类的亲社会主观作用的各个方面。但是，由于样本量小，解释时应谨慎。此外，OXTR SNP不能减轻MDMA的主观整体效果（任何药物效果）或“与他人的亲近感”。

试用注册： ClinicalTrials.gov：http://www.clinicaltrials.gov，否：NCT00886886，NCT00990067，NCT01136278，NCT01270672，NCT01386177，NCT01465685，NCT01771874和NCT01951508。