Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 31, 2026

MALDI Imaging Mass Spectrometry of Neuropeptides in Parkinson's Disease
Published on: February 14, 2012
NeuroPep: a comprehensive resource of neuropeptides
Yan Wang1, Mingxia Wang1, Sanwen Yin1
1Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China, School of Software Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China, Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA and National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Abstract:
Neuropeptides play a variety of roles in many physiological processes and serve as potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of some nervous-system disorders. In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of identified neuropeptides. Therefore, we have developed NeuroPep, a comprehensive resource of neuropeptides, which holds 5949 non-redundant neuropeptide entries originating from 493 organisms belonging to 65 neuropeptide families. In NeuroPep, the number of neuropeptides in invertebrates and vertebrates is 3455 and 2406, respectively. It is currently the most complete neuropeptide database. We extracted entries deposited in UniProt, the database (www.neuropeptides.nl) and NeuroPedia, and used text mining methods to retrieve entries from the MEDLINE abstracts and full text articles. All the entries in NeuroPep have been manually checked. 2069 of the 5949 (35%) neuropeptide sequences were collected from the scientific literature. Moreover, NeuroPep contains detailed annotations for each entry, including source organisms, tissue specificity, families, names, post-translational modifications, 3D structures (if available) and literature references. Information derived from these peptide sequences such as amino acid compositions, isoelectric points, molecular weight and other physicochemical properties of peptides are also provided. A quick search feature allows users to search the database with keywords such as sequence, name, family, etc., and an advanced search page helps users to combine queries with logical operators like AND/OR. In addition, user-friendly web tools like browsing, sequence alignment and mapping are also integrated into the NeuroPep database. Database URL: http://isyslab.info/NeuroPep
Related Concept Videos
Chemical Synapses
Because chemical synapses depend on the release of neurotransmitter molecules from synaptic vesicles to pass on their signal, there is an approximately one millisecond delay between when the axon potential reaches the presynaptic terminal and when the neurotransmitter leads to opening of postsynaptic ion channels. Additionally, this signaling is...
Neurochemical Transmission: Sites of Drug Action
Classification of Neurotransmitters
Adrenergic Neurons: Neurotransmission
Synthesis: Catecholamine synthesis requires tyrosine, which is taken...
Neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitters

