title: Growth hormone secretagogues: focus on the growth hormone-releasing peptides.
abstract: This review systematically analyses recent knowledge of the biology of the growth hormone-releasing peptides. Many years before native GHRH had been isolated and sequenced, the synthesis of an enkephalin analog, devoid of any opioid activity but capable of specifically releasing GH from in vitro pituitaries, prompted the design of a number of structurally interrelated GHRPs with improved GH-releasing activity. Nowadays, GHRPs are the most effective GH-secretagogues known and could be used profitably in humans with GH hyposecretory disturbances to promote a pattern of GH secretion that mimics physiology in a better way than the exogenously administered GH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Locatelli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Torsello
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015220:Calcium Channels / Q000378:metabolism; D015195:Drug Design; D004745:Enkephalins / Q000494:pharmacology; D013007:Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone / Q000187:drug effects; D006133:Growth Substances / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019382:Human Growth Hormone / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010903:Pituitary Gland, Anterior / Q000187:drug effects; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000378:metabolism; D013004:Somatostatin / Q000187:drug effects; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D015220:Calcium Channels; D004745:Enkephalins; D006133:Growth Substances; D009842:Oligopeptides; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface; D019382:Human Growth Hormone; D013004:Somatostatin; D013007:Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone