A bioactive peptide from the skin secretion of the Chinese bamboo odorous frog, Odorrana versabilis

The peptide was named QUB-1678 because of its molecular mass and constituent 14 amino acid residues, DDTEDMTNKFYGLM-NH2. This peptide was considered to be a member of the tachykinin peptide family.

Next, QUB-1678 was synthesised by SPPS and used to conduct many biological assays.<br><br>QUB-1678 displayed strong smooth muscle activity on the two kinds of tissues tested, namely the rat bladder and uterus, with EC50 values of 2.413×10-7 M and 3.161×10-8 M, respectively. Meanwhile, no significant cytotoxicity to horse red blood cells was observed with QUB-1678 with a haemolysis of less than 10% at concentrations up to 512 µM in cytotoxicity experiments.<br><br>As a consequence of the widespread use of neuropeptides, these compounds are used in critical physiological processes in the nervous, immune, gastrointestinal, respiratory, urogenital, and dermal systems.