acth-(4-7)--pro-gly-pro- and Body-Weight

Topics: Adrenocorticotropic Hormone; Animals; Antineoplastic Agents; Body Weight; Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; Female; Longevity; Mice; Neoplasms; Oligopeptides; Peptide Fragments

Maternal deprivation in the early postnatal period significantly affects the behavior and development of different animals. Here we studied delayed effects of daily maternal deprivation (5 h/day) on physical development and behavior of white rats during postnatal days 1 to 14. Here we studied the possibility of reducing the negative consequences of deprivation by daily intranasal treatment with Semax, an analog of ACTH(4-10), in a dose of 0.05 mg/kg from postnatal days 15 to 28. It was found that maternal deprivation decelerated the growth of young rats, boosted physical activity and emotional reactivity in novel environment, and increased anxiety in one-month-old animals. Semax weakened the impact of deprivation on animal body weight and normalized the levels of anxiety in rats.

Topics: Administration, Intranasal; Adrenocorticotropic Hormone; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Anxiety; Behavior, Animal; Body Weight; Emotions; Female; Male; Maternal Deprivation; Maze Learning; Motor Activity; Nootropic Agents; Peptide Fragments; Rats

The heptapeptide Semax (Met-Glu-His-Phe-Pro-Gly-Pro) is an analog of the adrenocorticotropin fragment (4-10) which after intranasal application has profound effects on learning and exerts marked neuroprotective activities. Here, we found that a single application of Semax (50 microg/kg body weight) results in a maximal 1.4-fold increase of BDNF protein levels accompanying with 1.6-fold increase of trkB tyrosine phosporylation levels, and a 3-fold and a 2-fold increase of exon III BDNF and trkB mRNA levels, respectively, in the rat hippocampus. Semax-treated animals showed a distinct increase in the number of conditioned avoidance reactions. We suggest that Semax affects cognitive brain functions by modulating the expression and the activation of the hippocampal BDNF/trkB system.

Topics: Administration, Intranasal; Adrenocorticotropic Hormone; Animals; Avoidance Learning; Body Weight; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; Cognition; Conditioning, Psychological; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Exons; Hippocampus; Nootropic Agents; Peptide Fragments; Rats; Reaction Time; Receptor, trkB; RNA, Messenger; Up-Regulation

Acute hypobaric hypoxia of pregnant rats led to a significant delay in body weight gain, growth and time of eye opening in newborn rat pups which was paralleled by behavioral changes. Preventive intranasal instillations of peptide mixture (semax and beta-casomorphine-7) to pregnant females prevented the effect of hypoxia on the progeny.

Topics: Adrenocorticotropic Hormone; Analgesics, Opioid; Animals; Animals, Newborn; Behavior, Animal; Body Weight; Endorphins; Female; Fetal Hypoxia; Hypoxia; Male; Maze Learning; Neuroprotective Agents; Peptide Fragments; Pregnancy; Rats; Receptors, Opioid, mu