Pharmacological and neurobiologicalstudies on Neuropeptide Sand its receptor

TL;DRAbstract

Neuropeptide S (NPS) is the last neuropeptide identified via reverse pharmacology techniques. NPS selectively binds and activates a previously orphan GPCR, now named NPSR, producing intracellular Ca2+ mobilization and stimulation of cAMP levels. Biological functions modulated by the NPS/NPSR system include anxiety, arousal, locomotion, food intake, learning and memory, pain and drug addiction. In our laboratories we provided further evidence that NPS injected supraspinally in mice acts as a stimulatory anxiolytic. In fact, in the mouse righting reflex (RR) test, NPS (0.01- 1 nmol, i.c.v.) was able to reduce in a dose dependent manner the percent of animals losing the RR in response to diazepam (15mg/kg, i.p.) and their sleep time. Furthermore, NPS in the same range of doses caused a significant increase in locomotor activity (LA) in mice. These effects were associated with a clear anxiolytic-like action elicited by NPS in the mouse elevated plus maze (EPM) test, open field (OF

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