The Journal of Headache and Pain (Apr 2018)

Discovery of PACAP and its receptors in the brain

  • Takahiro Hirabayashi,
  • Tomoya Nakamachi,
  • Seiji Shioda

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s10194-018-0855-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract Pituitary adenylate-cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a 27- or 38-amino acid neuropeptide, which belongs to the vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP)/glucagon/secretin family. PACAP shows particularly high homology (~ 68%) to VIP. Because of the high homology of the amino acid sequences of PACAP and VIP, these peptides share three class B-G-protein coupled receptors: the PAC1-Receptor (PAC1-R), the VPAC1-Receptor (VPAC1-R) and VPAC2-Receptor (VPAC2-R). These receptors have high homology to each other, and their high homology is utilized for these discoveries. This review provides mainly an overview of the history of the discovery of PACAP and its three receptors.

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