Neuropeptide AF

Where it comes from

Made in

The same neurons as neuropeptide FF

Sent out by

With neuropeptide FF

Acts on

• Opioid and cardiovascular circuits

What it does

• Modulates opioids like neuropeptide FF, with which it was isolated from the same brain extract ¹
• Prefers NPFFR2, as neuropeptide FF does, so nothing in its pharmacology separates the two ²
• Little studied on its own: almost every experiment in the field uses the shorter peptide as the family’s representative ³

In medicine

• No medicine copies it or blocks it, and it is not measured in people
• Nothing in the clinic would distinguish it from neuropeptide FF: an NPFF receptor blocker blocks both at once ²

Beyond the body’s own use

• Nothing containing it is in trials, approved or obtainable outside the laboratory
• Its difference from neuropeptide FF is length rather than action: eighteen residues against eight, both ending in Arg-Phe-amide, and the extra ten slow its clearance without changing which receptors it uses ²
• What is unknown is whether the body ever needs the long form. One precursor makes both, no tissue is known to make one alone, and no animal has been made that can produce neuropeptide FF without neuropeptide AF ¹