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. 1969 Sep;37(1):198–206. doi: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.1969.tb09538.x

Structure and pharmacological actions of phyllocaerulein, a caerulein-like nonapeptide

Its occurrence in extracts of the skin of Phyllomedusa sauvagei and related Phyllomedusa species

A Anastasi, G Bertaccini, J M Cei, G De Caro, V Erspamer, M Impicciatore
PMCID: PMC1703762  PMID: 5824931

Abstract

1. The South American amphibian Phyllomedusa sauvagei contains in its skin large amounts of a polypeptide closely resembling caerulein in its pharmacological actions. This polypeptide, called phyllocaerulein, was obtained in a pure form, and upon acid hydrolysis, enzymic digestion and end-group determination experiments it proved to be a nonapeptide of the following composition Pyr-Glu-Tyr(SO3H)-Thr-Gly-Trp-Met-Asp-Phe-NH2

It may be seen that caerulein and phyllocaerulein have in common the C-terminal heptapeptide and the N-terminal pyroglutamyl residue.

2. Phyllocaerulein is indistinguishable from caerulein even in parallel bioassay. However, the former polypeptide seems to be somewhat more potent than the latter on all the preparations tested.

3. In different batches of Phyllomedusa sauvagei skin the phyllocaerulein content ranged between 150 and 600 μg/g of fresh tissue.

Phyllocaerulein or similar polypeptides occur also in the skin of several other Phyllomedusa species, among which are Phyll. burmeisteri, Phyll. dachnicolor, Phyll, helenae, Phyll. annae, Phyll. callidryas and Phyll. bicolor.

4. The qualitative identification and quantitative estimation of caerulein-like polypeptides in crude skin extracts may be complicated by the concomitant occurrence of other active polypeptides. These, however, are poorly effective on some test preparations which seem to respond selectively to caerulein.

5. Like that of caerulein, the biological significance of phyllocaerulein is completely obscure.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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