title: Immunology of VIP: a review and therapeutical perspectives.
abstract: Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is a neuropeptide with a broad distribution in the body that exerts very important pleiotropic functions in several systems. The present work reviews the immunology of VIP. Being daring, this neuropeptide could be included in the group of cytokines since it is produced and secreted by different immunocompetent cells in response to various immune signals, plays a broad spectrum of immunological functions, and exerts them, in a paracrine and/or autocrine way, through three different specific receptors. Although VIP has been classically considered as an immunodepressant agent, and its main described role has been as an anti-inflammatory factor, several evidences suggest that a better way to see this peptide is as a modulator of the homeostasis of the immune system. In the last decade, the pharmacology of VIP has spectacularly grown, and VIP itself, as well as more stable VIP-derived agents, have been used or proposed as efficient therapeutical treatments of several disorders, specially inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as septic shock, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and autoimmune diabetes. A broad field of perspectives is actually open, and further investigations will help us to definitively understand the immunology of this very important peptide.
authors.affiliation: Dept. Cell Biology, Faculty of Biology, Complutense University, Madrid 28040, Spain. gomariz@eucmax.sim.ucm.es
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Gomariz
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Abad
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leceta
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delgado
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000187:drug effects; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000096:biosynthesis; D010586:Phagocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D018005:Receptors, Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide / Q000502:physiology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014660:Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D007136:Immunoglobulins; D018005:Receptors, Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D014660:Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide