Leumorphin in human brain.
Porcine leumorphin, a putative opioid peptide corresponding to amino acid residues 228-256 of preproenkephalin B has been demonstrated to exist in the porcine neurointermediate pituitary. A recent study on the sequence analysis of genomic DNA of human preproenkephalin B has shown that human leumorphin differs in 3 amino acid residues from porcine leumorphin. In order to clarify whether leumorphin is an endogenous opioid peptide in man, we have studied its existence and regional distribution in the human brain using a radioimmunoassay (RIA) for leumorphin. Reverse-phase HPLC and high performance gel permeation chromatography coupled with the RIA for leumorphin revealed that human leumorphin existed together with rimorphin (dynorphin B) in water extracts of the human brain. Leumorphin-like immunoreactivity (-LI) and dynorphin-LI distributed in parallel throughout the brain. These results indicate that leumorphin is a novel endogenous opioid peptide in man.
D000818:Animals; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004745:Enkephalins / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000032:analysis*; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D013045:Species Specificity; D013552:Swine
D004745:Enkephalins; D011498:Protein Precursors; C033660:preproenkephalin