NERP-1

Where it comes from

Made in

Vasopressin neurons of the hypothalamus and the posterior pituitary, with vasopressin itself

Sent out by

With vasopressin

Acts on

• Vasopressin neurons

What it does

• Suppresses vasopressin release provoked by salt or angiotensin II ¹
• Increases urine flow when given centrally to rats ¹
• A built-in brake released with the hormone it brakes, which works by quieting the vasopressin neurons themselves ²

In medicine

• No medicine copies it or blocks it, and it is not measured in people
• Vasopressin itself has medicines on both sides, agonists and the vaptan blockers; NERP-1 has neither, and no receptor for it has been found ³

Beyond the body’s own use

• Nothing containing it is in trials, approved or obtainable outside the laboratory
• Its interest is the arrangement rather than the molecule: the neurons that release vasopressin also release a peptide that holds vasopressin back, and both come from one precursor, so the brake is built into the signal ¹
• What distinguishes it from NERP-2, cut from the same precursor, is that it does only this. NERP-2 restrains vasopressin as well, but also drives feeding through the orexin neurons, which NERP-1 does not ³