This study aimed to further define and quantify possible cross-reactive peptides when measuring plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) concentration in equids. Equine plasma samples were spiked with known concentrations of exogenous manufactured peptides comprising human ACTH1-39, ACTH18-39 (corticotropin-like intermediate lobe peptide, CLIP) and ACTH7-38 (corticotropin inhibiting peptide, CIP). All samples were assayed in duplicate using Siemens Immulite 2000xpi chemiluminescent assay (CLA) and Tosoh AIA-900 immunoflurorescent assay (IFA). As expected, ACTH1-39 was measured by both assays although higher values were reported using IFA (mean 132 % of actual concentrations) than CLA (mean 104 % of actual concentrations). ACTH18-39 was detected by the CLA but not the IFA (mean 29 % actual concentration) whereas ACTH7-38 was detected by the IFA, but not the CLA (mean 65 % actual concentration). The study further clarifies that these ACTH immunoassays are likely to report higher measured ACTH1-39 concentrations than are actually present in the sample although additional work is needed to elucidate the diagnostic and pathophysiologic implications of these findings.

A chemiluminescent immunoassay is commonly employed to measure adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) concentrations to assist pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction diagnosis. In a previous study, seasonally-dependent assay cross-reactivity to endogenous equine corticotropin-like intermediate lobe peptide (CLIP, ACTH 18-39) was suspected. The present study aimed to demonstrate binding of endogenous equine CLIP to the capture antibody of the ACTH chemiluminescent immunoassay. Liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry (LCMS) methods were optimised to identify selected ions from synthetic human ACTH, α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH, ACTH 1-17) and CLIP. Synthetic ACTH and CLIP bound to the capture antibody of the chemiluminescent ACTH assay, but α-MSH did not. Equine endogenous CLIP was detected by LCMS in pony plasma taken in the autumn and could be eluted from the capture antibody of the ACTH chemiluminescent immunoassay. Further research is required to enable quantification of CLIP. Equine CLIP may alter measured ACTH concentrations in vivo.

•MALDI-MS is a valuable analytical tool in pathology and laboratory medicine.•Advantages of MALDI-MS include ease of sample preparation and analysis.•Uses include ID of pathogens, monoclonal proteins, variants and diseased tissue.

Serotonin (5-HT) is involved in sleep in two different ways. First, when released during waking by the axonal nerve endings, it influences the synthesis of hypnogenic substances in specific brain targets. Such a synthesis might be in keeping with the waking qualitative aspects. As an example, the hypnogenic CLIP peptide (ACTH18-39) is synthesized when stressful events occur during wakefulness. Second, when released during sleep within the nucleus raphe dorsalis (nRD) by dendrites of 5-HT neurons, it contributes to 5-HT perikarya silencing through an auto-inhibitory process. Nitric oxide, co-synthesized with 5-HT, may act in synergy with this amine at both mentioned levels. Regarding the triggered hypnogenic substances, they induce sleep through acting on two components within the nRD: (1) the 5-HT component; its silencing is necessary to remove the gating effect exerted on phasic sleep events (ponto-geniculo-occipital, PGO, waves); (2) a substance P component; its silencing is necessary, at least, to alleviate the tonic influence exerted on somatic muscles. These two components may constitute the brain "sleep switch-on" mechanism allowing wake/sleep alternation. Pharmacological procedures influencing this switch may be determinant for treating insomniac patients. Serotonin appears thus to be involved in sleep preparation, triggering and maintenance.

We demonstrate that a donut-shaped surface pattern consisting of a central hydrophobic region and a surrounding hydrophilic region simultaneously concentrates and desalts a solution of neuropeptides with a high salt content. Our approach greatly simplifies the sample preparation process for MALDI mass spectrometry.

Introducing of urgent relearning in radial maze, consisting of one or two shifts of reward position in raw without any gap between behavioral sessions, resulted to inability of animals to use optimal navigational strategy to find preferable reward in maze while keeping responding to int-ra-maze stimuli. Procedural introducing of time-out between tested behavioral sessions, which was accompanied by sleep generated naturally or induced by injection of neuropeptide ACTH 18-39, resulted to considerable improvement of relearning in radial maze as well as reducing per-severative behavior and attempts to refuse from responding. The data obtained demonstrate the important role of sleep for successful urgent relearning in radial maze and preventing possible neurological disorders.

The remarkable conservation of the primary structures and anatomical location of dogfish α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH), corticotrophin-like intermediate lobe peptide (CLIP) and adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) compared with mammals reinforced the tissue-specific processing hypothesis of ACTH peptides in the pituitary gland. The cloning of dogfish pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) led to the identification of δ-MSH and simultaneously revealed the high conservation of the γ-MSH sequence during evolution. These studies have also shown that β-MSH is much less conserved during evolution and in some species is not even processed from β-LPH. Human pro-γ-MSH potentiates the corticosteroidogenic activity of ACTH and peptides generated from its N-terminal, in particular big-γ-MSH, appear to have adrenal mitogenic activity. Human big-γ-MSH (from the zona intermedia) may also cause the adrenache. The review finishes with a cautionary note with regard to the misdiagnosis of the ectopic ACTH syndrome in which partial processing of ACTH can result in large concentrations of α-MSH and CLIP, which can interfere in the performance of two-site immunoassays, and the problem of the correct disulphide bridge arrangement in synthetic N-POMC peptides is also discussed.

An immobilization stress (IS) of 1 h applied at the beginning of the dark phase is followed by a sleep rebound. During the restraint, serotonin released by the dorsal raphe nucleus within the arcuate area stimulates the availability of corticotropin-like intermediate lobe peptide (CLIP or ACTH18-39). Three hours after the restraint, CLIP, through its hypnogenic properties, contributes to the sleep rebound that follows the IS. Here, we immunohistochemically evaluated protein expression of the immediate early gene, c-Fos and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK) in hypothalamic (preoptic area [POA], paraventricular nucleus [PVN], arcuate nucleus [ARC]) and brain stem (dorsal raphe [DR], locus coeruleus [LC]) nuclei involved in the acute response to stress and the subsequent stress-related sleep rebound (recovery period). Immediately after the 1-h restraint, c-Fos and p-ERK expression increased in all structures studied, particularly in PVN and LC. Three hours later, the number of p-ERK- and c-Fos-positive neurons was reduced in PVN and LC (p < 0.001) as well as in DR (p < 0.01) compared to control animals. In contrast, both c-Fos and p-ERK expression in POA neurons (p < 0.01) and c-Fos expression in ARC neurons (p < 0.001) were increased 3 h after the IS. The marked activation observed in PVN and LC nucleus immediately after the IS confirms that these structures are clearly reactive to stress. However, the high activity observed in POA and ARC neurons during the recovery period, not described to date, highlights the particular part played by these structures in the stress-related sleep rebound. An unbalance in the above processes may contribute to pathological outcomes, such as anxiety and depression.

The precursor protein, pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) undergoes extensive post-translational processing in a tissue-specific manner to yield various biologically active peptides involved in diverse cellular functions. The recently developed method of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS) for direct tissue analysis has proved to be a powerful tool for investigating the distribution of peptides and proteins. In particular, topological mass spectrometry analysis using MALDI-MS can selectively provide a mass profile of the hormones included in cell secretory granules. An advantage of this technology is that it is possible to analyze a frozen thin slice section, avoiding an extraction procedure. Subsequently, tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) has a profound impact on addressing the modified residues in the hormone molecules. Based on these strategies with mass spectrometry, several interesting molecular forms of POMC-derived peptides have been found in the fish pituitary, such as novel sites of acetylation in α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH), hydroxylation of a proline residue in β-MSH, and the phosphorylated form of corticotropin-like intermediate lobe peptide.

We studied the effect of somatostatin on presinaptic NMDA receptors and postsinaptic GABA, NMDA, and AMPA receptors in rat brain. It was shown that somatostatin inhibits NMDA-induced (45)Ca(2+) uptake into synaptosomes isolated from rat brain cortex (IC50=2.8×10(-11) M). Somatostatin potentiates AMPA receptors and inhibits hippocampal NMDA receptors in the entire range of examined concentrations (10(-14)-10(-7) M); it also potentiates or inhibits GABA receptor currents in a concentration-dependent manner. Our results suggest that somatostatin modulates the function of ionotropic glutamate and GABA receptors and is involved in cognitive and neurodegenerative processes in the mammalian brain.

Direct tissue matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization with time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis provides a selective detection of mass profile for the peptides contained into cell secretory granules. By this mass spectrometry with slice of pituitary, two novel molecular forms of pro-opimelanocrtin related hormone were found in the orange-red strain medaka (Oryzias latipes var.). The structures of [N,O-diacetyl Serine(1), O-acetyl Serine(3)]-α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH) and [hydroxyproline(15)]-β-MSH, together with [phosphoserine(15)]-corticotropin-like intermediate lobe peptide, were determined for the first time using a collision-induced dissociation with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. A combination of mass spectrometry analyses is thus a powerful tool to lead to the elucidation of the post-translational processing from the pre-prohormone.

Drug/polymer interactions occur during in situ polymerization of poly(alkylcyanoacrylate) (PACA) formulations. We have used MALDI ionization coupled tandem time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry as an accurate method to characterize covalent peptide/polymer interactions of PACA nanoparticles with the bioactives D-Lys6-GnRH, insulin, [Asn1-Val5]-angiotensin II, and fragments of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1 (1-3)) and human adrenocorticotropic hormone (h-ACTH, (18-39)) at the molecular level. Covalent interactions of peptide with alkylcyanoacrylate were identified for D-Lys6-GnRH, [Asn1-Val5]-angiotensin II and IGF-1 (1-3). D-Lys6-GnRH and [Asn1-Val5]-angiotensin II were modified at their histidine side chain within the peptide, whilst IGF-1 (1-3) was modified at the C-terminal glutamic acid residue. The more complex protein insulin was not modified despite the presence of 2 histidine residues. This might be explained by the engagement of histidine residues in the folding and sterical arrangement of insulin under polymerization conditions. As expected, h-ACTH (18-39) that does not contain histidine residues did not interfere in the polymerization process. Lowering the pH did not prevent the covalent association of PACA with D-Lys6-GnRH or IGF-1 (1-3). Conclusively, protein and peptide bioactives are potentially reactive towards alkylcyanoacrylate monomers via various mechanisms with limited interference of pH. Histidines and C-terminal glutamic acid residues have been identified as potential sites of interaction. The likelihood of their engagement in the polymerization process (initiators), however, seems dependent on their sterical availability. The reactivity of nucleophilic functional groups should always be considered and bioactives examined for their potential to covalently interfere with alkylcyanoacrylate monomers, especially when designing PACA delivery systems for protein and peptide biopharmaceuticals.

It is now known that after an immobilization stress (IS) of short duration (1h), adult rats exhibit a significant rapid eye movement (REM) sleep rebound. In this study, we examined this phenomenon in aged animals. We found that aged rats subjected to an IS did not show a sleep rebound after the restraint, in contrast to younger animals. Plasma corticosterone and corticotrophin (ACTH(1)(-)(39)) levels were, however, similar in aged and adult rats. The corticotrophin-like intermediate lobe peptide (CLIP or ACTH(18)(-)(39)) system of the arcuate nucleus, suggested to be involved in REM sleep genesis by way of pontine projections (HP: the hypothalamo-pontine axis), was also not different between aged and young rats. The lack of REM sleep rebound observed in aged animals is thus independent of the HPA (hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal) and HP axe activities. The causal impairments might reside in REM sleep executive structures of the dorsal pontine tegmentum.

We studied the effect of corticotropin-like intermediate lobe peptide (CLIP) on presynaptic NMDA receptors and postsynaptic GABA, NMDA, and AMPA receptors in rat brain. CLIP inhibited presynaptic and postsynaptic NMDA receptors, but potentiated postsynaptic GABA and AMPA receptors. Our results indicate that CLIP modulates function of ionotropic receptors for glutamate and GABA.

Neuropeptides have important roles in modulating behavioral patterns such as social interaction. With the aim to determine the presence of neuropeptides known to be involved in social interaction as well as novel peptides, we used MALDI-TOF/MS to analyze neuropeptide profiles in some medaka brain regions. In the telencephalon, hypothalamus, and pituitary gland, 3, 6, and 10 peaks, respectively, were identified as neuropeptides (Arg-vasotocin [AVT], growth hormone-releasing hormone [GHRH], neuropeptide FF, substance P [SP], somatostatin-1 and -2, melanin-concentrating hormone [MCH], MCH gene-related peptide [Mgrp], melanocyte-stimulating hormone [MSH], corticotropin-like intermediate lobe peptide [CLIP], and beta-endorphin). The neuropeptide profile of telencephalon similar to that of the hypothalamus, but completely different from that of pituitary gland. For the future genetic analysis, we identified cDNAs encoding precursor proteins for the identified peptides. We also detect its expression of gamma-prepro-tachykinin gene encoding a SP precursor protein in both the telencephalon and hypothalamus. Our results indicated that the medaka brain contains some neuropeptides (AVT, SP, and somatostatins) that may be involved in modulating medaka behaviors such as social interaction.