Neurotensin

Where it comes from

Made in

N cells of the ileum; neurons in the hypothalamus, brainstem and reward pathways

Sent out by

Fat in the gut above all; in the brain, alongside dopamine

Acts on

• Gut (motility and fat absorption)
• Dopamine neurons
• Hypothalamus

What it does

• Promotes the absorption of fat in the gut ²
• Lowers blood pressure and body temperature when given
• In the brain it modulates dopamine, pain and feeding ²

In medicine

• No medicine. Pro-neurotensin in blood predicted new diabetes, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and death in a large Swedish cohort ¹, and has since been linked with fatty liver and stroke in others
• NTSR1 is over-expressed in pancreatic and other cancers and is the target of experimental radioligands ³

Beyond the body’s own use

• NTSR1 agonists are studied as antipsychotics and as non-opioid analgesics in animals. None has reached a trial in people, because activating the receptor also drops blood pressure and body temperature ²
• A lutetium-177 NTSR1 radioligand has been given to a handful of people with metastatic pancreatic cancer, with tumour shrinkage in some and no approval ³
• Pro-neurotensin is a research measure, not a clinical test: the association with later disease is consistent but nobody has shown that changing neurotensin changes the risk ¹