α-Neo-endorphin: A “big” leu-enkephalin with potent opiate activity from porcine hypothalami

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-291X(79)90394-2Get rights and content

Abstract

α-Neo-endorphin, a new morphinomimetic peptide was isolated in a yield of 50 μg from the extracts of 30,000 pig hypothalami. Its partial structure was determined by dansyl-Edman method in a nano mole scale as: Tyr-Gly-Gly-Phe-Leu-Arg-Lys-Arg-(Pro,Gly,Tyr2,Lys2,Arg). On the basis of our structural data, it is concluded that α-neo-endorphin is a “big” Leu-enkephalin, which has never been discovered and its structure shows no relationship with β-lipotropin. The occurence of α-neo-endorphin in brain might suggest the possible existence of a separate precursor to Leu-enkephalin distinct from that to Met-enkephalin and the other known endorphins.

References (13)

  • C.J. Bruton et al.

    J. Mol. Biol

    (1970)
  • C.Y. Lai
  • A.A. Waterfield et al.

    Eur. J. Pharmacol

    (1977)
  • J. Hughes et al.

    Nature

    (1975)
  • R. Guillemin et al.

    C.R. Acad. Sci

    (1976)
  • A.F. Bradbury et al.

    Nature

    (1976)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (0)

This work was supported in part by a grant to H.M. from Tanabe Foundation for Amino Acid Research.

View full text