Immunoreactive helodermin-like peptides in rat: a new class of mammalian neuropeptides related to secretin and VIP

Helodermin is a peptide from the venom of the lizard Heloderma suspectum (Gila Monster) showing a high degree of sequence similarity with VIP, PHI and secretin in its N-terminal moiety. The present data support the presence of peptide(s) closely related to helodermin in the brain, gut and salivary glands of rat. In our radioimmunoassays, we routinely used one of the three specific antisera obtained from rabbits that were immunized against lizard helodermin coupled to bovine serum albumin with carbodiimide. Heat- and acid-stable immunoreactive helodermin-like material was more abundant in striatum, hippocampus and anterior pituitary than in cerebral cortex and hypothalamus. High levels of helodermin-like material were also present in salivary glands, duodenum and jejunum. When submitted to gel permeation chromatography on a TSK-G 2000 SW column, the apparent molecular radius of most of the immunoreactive material ranged from 6 to 12 KDa.