Pharmacological characterization of rat VD-hemopressin( α), an α-hemoglobin-derived peptide exhibiting cannabinoid agonist-like effects in mice

Hemopressin and related peptides have shown to function as the endogenous ligands or the regulator of cannabinoid receptors. Moreover, hemopressin and its truncated peptides were also reported to produce a slight modulatory effect on opioid system. In the present work, based on the amino acid sequence analyses of hemoglobin subunit α, rat VD-hemopressin(α) [(r)VD-Hpα] was predicted as a cannabinoid peptide derived from rat α-hemoglobin. Furthermore, (r)VD-Hpα was synthesized and characterized in a series of in vitro and in vivo assays.

Source: Neuropeptides - December 15, 2016 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Ting Zheng, Ting Zhang, Run Zhang, Zi-Long Wang, Zheng-Lan Han, Ning Li, Xu-Hui Li, Meng-Na Zhang, Biao Xu, Xiong-Li Yang, Quan Fang, Rui Wang Source Type: research