title: Peptidomics for the discovery and characterization of neuropeptides and hormones.
abstract: The discovery of neuropeptides as signaling molecules with paracrine or hormonal regulatory functions has led to trailblazing advances in physiology and fostered the characterization of numerous neuropeptide-binding G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) as potential drug targets. The impact on human health has been tremendous: approximately 30% of commercial drugs act via the GPCR pathway. However, about 25% of the GPCRs encoded by the mammalian genome still lack their pharmacological identity. Searching for the orphan GPCR endogenous ligands that are likely to be neuropeptides has proved to be a formidable task. Here we describe the mass spectrometry (MS)-based technologies and experimental strategies that have been successful in achieving high-throughput characterization of endogenous peptides in nervous and endocrine systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 600 S. Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Elena V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Romanova
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 600 S. Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Electronic address: jsweedle@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Jonathan V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Sweedler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006728:Hormones / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D020543:Proteome / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones; D009479:Neuropeptides; D020543:Proteome
keywords: bioinformatics; endogenous peptides; mass spectrometry; nervous system; quantitation; sequencing