Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01189 (beta-endorphin)
 21,003 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In the brain of adult specimens of the tobacco hornworm moth, Manduca sexta (L), cells immunoreactive for several kinds of neuropeptides were localized by means of the PAP procedure, by use of antisera raised against mammalian hormones or hormonal peptides. In contrast, no such neurosecretory cells were found in the corpora cardiaca and corpora allata (CC/CA); in the CC/CA, however, immunoreactive nerve fibres were observed, reaching these organs from the brain. The neurosecretory cells found in the brain were immunoreactive with at least one of the following mammalian antisera, namely those raised against the insulin B-chain, somatostatin, glucagon C-terminal, glucagon N-terminal, pancreatic polypeptide (PP), secretin, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP), gastrin C-terminus, enkephalin, alpha- and beta-endorphin, Substance P, and calcitonin. No cells were immunoreactive with antisera specific for detecting neurons containing the insulin A-chain, nerve growth factor, epidermal growth factor, insulin connecting peptide (C-peptide), polypeptide YY (PYY), gastrin mid-portion (sequence 6-13), cholecystokinin (CCK) mid-portion (sequences 9-20 and 9-25), neurotensin C-terminus, bombesin, motilin, ACTH, or serotonin. All the neuropeptide-immunoreactive cells observed emitted nerve fibers passing through the brain to the CC and in some cases also to the CA. In CC these immunoreactive nerve fibers tended to accumulate near the aorta. It was speculated that neuropeptides are released into the circulating haemolymph and act as neurohormones.
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PMID:Immunohistochemical investigations of neuropeptides in the brain, corpora cardiaca, and corpora allata of an adult lepidopteran insect, Manduca sexta (L). 613 31

An intracisternal injection of somatostatin-28 produced hyperthermia in rats at cold, thermoneutral, warm ambient temperatures. The hyperthermic response to somatostatin-28 was not prevented by pretreatment of rats with the following agents: alpha-methylparatyrosine, phenoxybenzamine, propranolol, sulpiride, atropine, methysergide or naloxone. Somatostatin-28 prevented hypothermia induced by bombesin and gamma-MSH when it was administered simultaneously, but it left the hyperthermic response to TRH intact. The results indicate that somatostatin-28 produces hyperthermia by elevating a "set point" or regulated level of temperature. Under the conditions tested, the hyperthermic response to somatostatin-28 does not appear to be dependent on muscarinic cholinergic, serotonergic, alpha- or beta-adrenergic, dopaminergic or endogenous opiate system.
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PMID:Hyperthermic action of somatostatin-28. 613 57

The discovery of the role of neuropeptides in information processing within the central nervous system has brought a new dimension in the research for biological basis of affective disorders and mental diseases. Various peptides with a high binding affinity for benzodiazepine receptors have been isolated but none of them can be considered as a true endogenous ligand. Various peptides present agonist or antagonist activities in different pharmacological tests for anxiolytic activity but their main effects are different. Naloxone is able to antagonize several effects of benzodiazepines in animals and humans, which suggests that endorphins are involved in anxiolytic properties of these drugs. Neuropeptides may have anxiogenic or anxiolytic-like action related to the neuroendocrine modulation of acquisition and retention of adaptive behaviours in stress situations. In addition neuropeptides such as alpha-MSH, bombesin and mainly CRF may regulate neurohormonal responses to stress. Finally evidence is presented to suggest that neuropeptides may be involved in the critical stages of emotional development, to allow associations between visceral changes and inner representation of significant environmental stimuli. The modulation by ACTH peptides of the imprinting process in birds is an example of such a possibility.
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PMID:[Peptides and anxiety]. 614 13

Several neuropeptides injected intracisternally were assessed for their effects on gastric secretion in rats. Bombesin (1 microgram) completely suppressed gastric acid secretion, produced the volume of gastric secretion, and partially blocked insulin- or 2-deoxy-D-glucose-induced stimulation of gastric acid output. The inhibitory effect of this peptide is dose-dependent, long-acting, reversible, and specific. Bombesin response appears to be central nervous system-mediated; its expression is not dependent on the vagus nerve or the adrenal glands, and does not rely on a decrease in gastrin secretion. Among seven other peptides tested, only beta-endorphin and a potent gonadotropin releasing-factor (gonadoliberin) agonist significantly reduced gastric acid secretion, with an activity ca. 100 times less than that of bombesin. The presence of bombesin-like material in rat brain and the high potency of bombesin to inhibit gastric secretion suggest that this peptide may be of physiologic significance as a chemical messenger involved in brain modulation of gastric secretion.
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PMID:Brain regulation of gastric secretion: influence of neuropeptides. 615 49

There are now about twelve substances, many of them peptides, that are thought to act as neurotransmitters in the enteric nervous system. Most of the studies of peptides have relied on immunochemical methods for their detection. However, difficulties arise in these studies because of the close similarities between peptides. Related peptides can be grouped in several ways according to similarities of origin, function, effects in bioassays and amino acid sequences. Peptides with the same function in different species, and only slight differences in amino acid sequence, have been called isopeptides. Peptide families that have sequences of amino acids in common, but do not necessarily have similar functions are described. In the guinea-pig small intestine, used as a model, the concentrations of fourteen nerve-related peptides and amines are compared. The actual chemical natures of the peptides are discussed. It is concluded that nerves containing authentic leu- and met-enkephelin, somatostatin and substance P are present. VIP in guinea-pig enteric nerves is different from the porcine standard. Peptides similar to authentic CCK8 and amphibian skin bombesin are present. Angiotensin and neurotensin-like peptides shown immunohistochemically are not the authentic peptides. In the longitudinal muscle plus myenteric plexus, most neuropeptide concentrations are in the range of 10-500 pmole/g. The exception is met-enkephalin (1,300 pmole/g). The amine transmitters have considerably higher concentrations, noradrenaline having a concentration of about 3,500 pmole/g and acetylcholine 1-2 x 10(5) pmole/g.
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PMID:Detection and characterisation of neurotransmitters, particularly peptides, in the gastrointestinal tract. 617 12

The effects of intracerebroventricular administration of several peptides on discrete-trial, conditioned avoidance responding were assessed in the rat. Three peptides (neurotensin, bombesin and beta-endorphin) produced a neuroleptic-like effect (i.e. a decrease in avoidance responding with no effect on escape responding). A low dose (0.6 nmol) of each peptide elicited a significant effect. Neurotensin and bombesin produced a significant but partial decrease in avoidance responding; larger doses of these peptides did not produce a greater effect. beta-Endorphin elicited dose-related decrements in avoidance responding. In addition, the effect of neurotensin, but not bombesin or beta-endorphin, was antagonized by simultaneous administration of an equimolar dose of thyrotropin-releasing hormone. Hence, the 3 peptides do not appear to produce decreases in avoidance responding by the same mechanism. Thyrotropin-releasing hormone, luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone, bradykinin, substance P, des-Tyr1-gamma-endorphin and melanotropin inhibiting factor did not significantly affect avoidance responding. These findings, taken together with previous findings, suggest that intracerebroventricular administration of certain endogenous peptides (neurotensin, bombesin and beta-endorphin) may exert neuroleptic-like effects.
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PMID:The effects of neuropeptides on discrete-trial conditioned avoidance responding. 617 91

The presence and differential distribution of substances antigenically related to known vertebrate neuropeptides demonstrated within the corpus cardiacum of the insect Leucophaea are as follows: Of ten mammalian antisera tested, six yielded substantial immunoreactive deposits resembling oxytocin, somatostatin, Substance P, met-enkephalin, bombesin, and neurotensin, respectively. In the remaining four, the reaction was moderate (vasopressin, beta-endorphin) or marginal (LH-RF, calcitonin). With regard to their regional distribution, these biochemically distinct reaction products seem to fall into two groups: (1) Materials resembling oxytocin, vasopressin, met-enkephalin, beta-endorphin (and presumably also neurotensin and LH-RF) predominate in the central release area of the organ and are considered to be of extrinsic (cerebral) origin. (2) Substances localized primarily in areas rich in intrinsic glandular cells of the corpus cardiacum, and revealed by antisera raised against somatostatin, Substance P, and bombesin, are judge to be synthesized and stored within this organ. In peptidergic fibers entering ther adjacent corpora allata, thus far Substance P-, beta-endorphin-, and LH-RF-like immunoreactivities have been demonstrated. Some of these "new" neuropeptides may be contained in classical neurosecretory neurons, formerly identified by less specific methods, others must be assigned to additional peptidergic neurons heretofore unknown.
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PMID:Immunoreactive material resembling vertebrate neuropeptides in the corpus cardiacum and corpus allatum of the insect Leucophaea maderae. 617 26

We have prepared a fluorescent conjugate of porcine calmodulin with 5-(dimethylamino)-1-naphthalene-sulfonyl chloride that is highly sensitive to both calcium binding and protein binding. We have used the fluorescence of this conjugate in addition to the intrinsic peptide fluorescence to show that adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), beta-endorphin, glucagon, and substance P undergo calcium-dependent binding by calmodulin, with competition for common binding sites. The dissociation constants determined in the presence of 0.85 mM CaCl2 and 0.2 N KC1, pH 7.3 at 25 degrees C, range from 1.5 muM to 3.4 muM. The alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, bombesin, and somatostatin also bind, with dissociation constants between 60 muM and 90 muM. Angiotensins I and III, bradykinin, neurotensin, physalaemin, substance P octapeptide, insulin, and Leu- and Met-enkephalin show little or no binding. Sequence comparisons show that the peptides that bind calmodulin well contain regions structurally similar to the recognition sequence for the cAMP-dependent protein kinase and to the sequences surrounding phosphorylated serine residues in several calmodulin binding proteins. This result suggests that modification of calmodulin binding sites in calmodulin-dependent proteins is one of the functions of protein kinase. Calcium has a dual role in peptide binding by calmodulin. The occupation of calcium binding sites having a pK approximately 4 results in a 2-fold increase in peptide binding affinity.
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PMID:Binding of simple peptides, hormones, and neurotransmitters by calmodulin. 618 Jul 61

Bronchial endocrine cells containing gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP), a mammalian analog of bombesin, and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) were immunohistochemically localized in paraffin sections of normal and pathologic human lungs. GRP-containing cells were present in fetal bronchi at the 12th gestational week and in "neuroepithelial bodies" about the time of delivery. In normal adult lungs, a few isolated GRP-containing cells were present in bronchial and bronchiolar mucosa. In bronchiectatic or fibrotic lungs, small clusters of GRP-containing cells were occasionally noted in basal bronchial mucosa. Pronounced GRP cell hyperplasia often was observed in ectatic bronchioles of lungs with tumorlet. Cells of pulmonary tumorlets mostly showed GRP immunoreactivity. Two bronchial carcinoids exhibited a moderate number of GRP-containing cells. Three of four small cell carcinomas, intermediate cell type could be designated "GRPomas" from the number of GRP-containing cells present. In four of 11 small cell carcinomas, oat cell type, GRP immunoreactivity was infrequently recognized. Immunoabsorption tests indicated that GRP immunoreactivity in lungs would mainly fall under the C-terminal fragment rather than the whole sequence of GRP. Bombesin immunoreactivity in human lungs should be attributed to GRP or GRP-like molecules, since no bombesin immunoreactants were identified with bombesin antiserum which shows no cross-reactivity to porcine GRP. ACTH-containing cells, also reactive to beta-endorphin antiserum, were absent from normal fetal or adult lungs but did accompany GRP-containing cells occasionally in ectatic non-neoplastic bronchioles, always in tumorlet cells, and often in endocrine lung tumors, although the cells containing GRP and ACTH were not identical. The significance of GRP in the physiology and pathophysiology of the lung is discussed, and the necessity of reevaluation of "ectopic" ACTH production in lung neoplasms is proposed.
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PMID:Immunohistochemical studies on gastrin-releasing peptide- and adrenocorticotropic hormone-containing cells in the human lung. 618 83

Four peptides--vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, substance P, somatostatin and a peptide-like avian pancreatic polypeptide--have been found in nerves of the human male genitalia using highly sensitive and specific methods of immunocytochemistry and radioimmunoassay. Five other peptides (met-enkephalin, leu-enkephalin, neurotensin, bombesin and cholecystokinin-8) were absent. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide was the most abundant peptide, its highest concentration being in the proximal corpus cavernosum. Immunoelectron microscopy localized this peptide to large (97 +/- 20 nm), round, electron-dense granules of p-type nerve terminals. Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide-immunoreactive neuronal cell bodies were found in the prostate gland and the root of the corpus cavernosum. Substance P immunoreactive material was present in smaller concentration and was mainly localized in nerves around the corpuscular receptors of the glans penis. Somatostatin immunoreactive nerves were associated mainly with the smooth muscle of the seminal vesicle and the vas deferens. When antiserum to avian pancreatic polypeptide was applied, certain nerves were stained, particularly in the vas deferens, the prostate gland and the seminal vesicle. However, chromatography detected no pure avian pancreatic polypeptide suggesting the presence of a structurally related substance, possibly neuropeptide Y, which cross-reacts with the avian pancreatic polypeptide antiserum. Similar distributions between vasoactive intestinal polypeptide-immunoreactive and acetylcholinesterase-positive nerves and between avian pancreatic polypeptide-immunoreactive and adrenergic nerves were observed. A general neuronal marker, neuron-specific enolase, was used to investigate the general pattern of the organ's innervation. The abundance and distribution patterns of these peptide-immunoreactive nerves indicate that they may play important roles in the male sexual physiology.
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PMID:Peptidergic innervation of the human male genital tract. 619 58


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