Authors: Gomariz, R.P.; Martinez, C.; Abad, C.; Leceta, J.; Delgado, M.

Source: Current Pharmaceutical Design, Volume 7, Number 2, 1 January 2001 , pp. 89-111(23)

Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers

Abstract:

Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is a neuropeptide with a broad distribution in the body that exerts very important pleiotropic functions in several systems. The present work reviews the immunology of VIP. Being daring, this neuropeptide could be included in the group of cytokines since it is produced and secreted by different immunocompetent cells in response to various immune signals, plays a broad spectrum of immunological functions, and exerts them, in a paracrine and/orautocrine way, through three different specific receptors. Although VIP has been classically considered as an immunodepressant agent, and its main described role has been as an anti-inflammatory factor, several evidences suggest that a better way to see this peptide is as a modulator of the homeostasis of the immune system. In the last decade, the pharmacology of VIP has spectacularly grown, and VIP itself, as well as more stable VIP-derived agents, have been used or proposed as efficient therapeutical treatments of several disorders, specially inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as septic shock, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn´s disease and autoimmune diabetes. A broad field of perspectives is actually open, and further investigations will help us to definitively understand the immunology of this ”very important peptide“

Keywords: Immunology of VIP; Vasoactive intestinal peptide; Immunodepressant agent; Anti inflammatory factor; Neuroimmunomodulation; VPAC1 and VPAC2; T cell chemotaxis; Metalloproteinase activity; Costimulatory molecules; Allogeneic Stimulation; Phagocytic process; Sodium caseinate injection; Chemottractant capacity; Cytokine production; Cytokine pleiotropy; Immediate mitogen; Hetro dimer structure; Autoimmune Diseases; Retroperitoneal histiocytoma; Immunoreactive nerve fibers; Immune modulator; Radiolabeled derivatives; Neuroprotective molecule

Document Type: Review article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1381612013398374

Publication date: 2001-01-01

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• Current Pharmaceutical Design publishes timely in-depth reviews covering all aspects of current research in rational drug design. Each issue is devoted to a single major therapeutic area. A Guest Editor who is an acknowledged authority in a therapeutic field has solicits for each issue comprehensive and timely reviews from leading researchers in the pharmaceutical industry and academia.
  
  Each thematic issue of Current Pharmaceutical Design covers all subject areas of major importance to modern drug design, including: medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, drug targets and disease mechanism.

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