The human peptide directory

The pituitary’s order to the adrenal: make cortisol.

The tanning and fullness peptide, the first 13 residues of ACTH.

A second melanocortin from the lipotropin end of POMC, acting on appetite.

Melanocortins from the front of POMC, tuned to the receptor that handles salt.

The body’s own morphine, released with ACTH under stress.

The POMC half that holds beta-endorphin and beta-MSH.

The first 56 residues of beta-lipotropin, left when beta-endorphin is cut away.

The tail of ACTH, cut off when alpha-MSH is made.

The first word of the stress response, from the hypothalamus to the pituitary.

A CRH cousin from the midbrain that curbs appetite and strengthens the heart.

The CRHR2-selective urocortin, trialled as a heart failure infusion.

The urocortin of the islet, where it stops insulin from overshooting.

The hypothalamic signal for growth hormone, and the model for tesamorelin.

Somatostatin’s cortical cousin, a peptide of sleep and quiet.

Three amino acids from the hypothalamus that run the thyroid axis.

Ten residues in pulses run reproduction; given steadily, they shut it down.

The ancient second GnRH, whose human receptor gene is broken.

The tachykinin that paces GnRH pulses, and the cause of hot flushes.

The hormone of labour, milk let-down and bonding.

The water hormone, which concentrates urine, tightens vessels and shapes bonding.

The stable tail of pro-vasopressin, which makes vasopressin measurable at last.

The oldest relaxin, a brain peptide of arousal, appetite and stress.

The brain’s most abundant peptide, and its strongest hunger signal.

The wake-keeping peptide whose loss is narcolepsy.

The second orexin, a straight chain that prefers the OX2 receptor.

Five amino acids, one of the two opioid peptides found in 1975.

The other pentapeptide of 1975, ending in leucine.

A seven-residue enkephalin from the tail of proenkephalin.

The eight-residue enkephalin, a marker of proenkephalin cutting.

The kappa opioid of stress and dysphoria, and a pain modulator both ways.

The second kappa peptide of prodynorphin, thirteen residues long.

A ten-residue kappa opioid from the front of prodynorphin.

Alpha-neoendorphin without its last lysine.

Dynorphins A and B still joined: 32 residues that also open NMDA channels.

The fourth opioid peptide, found by its orphan receptor, which morphine ignores.

Nociceptin’s neighbour on the same precursor, which blocks its effects.

The first neuropeptide found, and a carrier of pain.

Substance P’s partner, cut from the same gene, that tightens airways and gut.

Neurokinin A with a 26-residue extension, a longer-lived tachykinin.

A third extended neurokinin A, from the gamma splice of the tachykinin gene.

A peptide of appetite, mood, pain and seizures, found in pig gut in 1983.

The other product of the galanin gene, with an antifungal turn.

A hypothalamic peptide that shares galanin’s core and reports on leptin.

VIP’s companion from the same precursor, the human form of PHI.

The short PACAP, which matches VIP most closely.

A neuropeptide of stress, migraine and neuron survival, the next target after CGRP.

An eight-residue peptide that blunts morphine and tunes the body’s own opioids.

The longer peptide of the NPFF gene, ending in the same Arg-Phe.

The first peptide of the NPVF gene, which stirs prolactin release.

The mammalian gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone, which puts the brakes on GnRH.

A peptide that wakes and calms at once, and shortens sleep in one rare family.

The short neuropeptide W, a feeding and stress peptide of the brainstem.

Neuropeptide W-23 with seven more residues.

A neuropeptide that starts with a brominated tryptophan, unique in mammals.

The long form of neuropeptide B.

The short PrRP, an appetite and stress peptide despite its name.

The full-length PrRP, more potent than its short form.

The longer peptide of the QRFP gene, an appetite and bone signal.

The 26-residue core of QRFP, the form most studied.

Satiety peptides named for the drugs that switch their gene on.

The hunger neuron’s blocker of the fullness receptor.

The nerve peptide of migraine, and one of the strongest vessel relaxers known.

CGRP from a second gene, three residues different, strongest in the gut’s nerves.

A VGF peptide that burns fat and signals through a complement receptor.

The 62-residue VGF peptide of memory and antidepressant action in the hippocampus.

A VGF peptide that holds back vasopressin.

A second vasopressin-restraining VGF peptide that also drives feeding.

A satiety peptide of 2006 that works without leptin.

A peptide found by genome search in 2013, a tuner of reproduction and mood.

The longer phoenixin, cut from the same precursor as the short one.

The pituitary hormone of height and lean mass, and a much-abused one.

The milk hormone, held in check by dopamine and loosed by suckling and stress.

The pituitary’s thyroid thermostat, and the first test of the thyroid.

The gonadotropin of ovulation and testosterone.

The gonadotropin that grows follicles and sperm, and the workhorse of IVF.

The growth factor of learning, raised by exercise and lowered in depression.

The first neurotrophin, a Nobel discovery, now a pain target and an eye medicine.

The neurotrophin of position sense and of the inner ear’s nerve supply.

The least-known neurotrophin, sharing BDNF’s receptor.

The fed-state signal that moves sugar out of the blood.

The piece cut out of proinsulin, and the best measure of a pancreas’s own output.

Insulin’s partner from the same cell, and the amyloid of the diabetic islet.

The fasting hormone that tells the liver to release sugar.

The gut’s after-meal signal that semaglutide imitates.

GLP-1 with one extra glycine: the same signal in a slightly longer coat.

The gut’s own growth signal for its lining.

One gut peptide that speaks to both the GLP-1 and the glucagon receptor.

The largest piece of proglucagon the gut lets out, with no settled job.

The first thirty residues of proglucagon, cut free in the pancreas.

The upper gut’s incretin, and tirzepatide’s second target.

The stomach’s hunger signal, and the one hormone that rises before a meal.

Ghrelin without its fatty acid: most of the ghrelin in blood, and no hunger signal.

A peptide cut from the ghrelin precursor whose proposed job did not hold up.

The gut’s fullness hormone as first secreted, before DPP-4 trims it.

The fullness form of PYY, made by DPP-4, that the brain listens to.

The islet’s after-meal signal that curbs appetite and pancreatic juice.

The shortest active cholecystokinin, and the one a clinic injects.

A mid-length cholecystokinin found in gut and blood.

The classic cholecystokinin, the length first purified from pig gut.

The longest cholecystokinin, once thought the main one in human blood.

The stomach’s acid command, from the antrum to the acid-making cells.

The longer gastrin, and most of the gastrin in blood between meals.

The first hormone ever named, which tells the pancreas to make bicarbonate.

The hormone that sweeps the empty gut clean between meals.

A gut and brain peptide released by fat, now watched in obesity and cancer.

Neurotensin’s short sibling from the same precursor.

It releases gastrin, carries itch, and its precursor marks small-cell lung cancer.

The last ten residues of GRP, as active as the whole.

The second human bombesin, with a receptor of its own.

The gut’s salt-and-water signal, which linaclotide imitates.

Guanylin’s cousin that works in acid, and plecanatide’s model.

The brake on nearly every other hormone, and the parent of octreotide.

The longer somatostatin of the gut, with a liking for one receptor.

A colon hormone of the insulin family that rises with fasting.

The gut’s relaxer: it widens vessels, pours out water and opens the airways.

A gut and brain peptide that contracts the uterus, curbs appetite and sets rhythms.

Neuromedin U’s partner in the body clock.

The liver’s gatekeeper for iron.

A trimmed hepcidin found in urine, without the iron-regulating power.

The shortest hepcidin, nearly inert for iron.

The messenger of growth hormone, made by the liver.

The fetal growth factor, switched on from the father’s copy of the gene.

The ileum’s message to the liver after a meal: enough bile acid, stop making more.

The heart’s own answer to too much volume.

The kidney’s own natriuretic peptide, working from inside the tubule.

The ventricle’s distress signal, and the blood test for heart failure.

The inactive half of proBNP, which makes the steadier blood test.

The natriuretic peptide of the vessel wall and the growth plate.

The longer CNP, the form the tissues hold.

The strongest vessel constrictor the body makes, and a target in four diseases.

Endothelin-1’s near twin, with a job in ovulation and the gut.

The endothelin of development, whose loss leaves the gut without nerves.

A vessel-relaxing peptide that seals the endothelium, and a marker of sepsis.

Adrenomedullin’s companion from the same precursor, which quiets the adrenal nerve.

A second adrenomedullin found in 2004, with a liking for the placenta and the heart.

The short apelin, a vessel relaxer and heart strengthener.

Apelin-13 with its first residue sealed, the main apelin in the heart.

A longer apelin that pulls its receptor into the cell harder.

The longest apelin, strongest in the lung and the placenta.

The second apelin receptor hormone, hidden in a “non-coding” gene until 2013.

A fish hormone found in people, and the most potent constrictor of some arteries.

Eight residues that end as urotensin II does, from a gene of its own.

The inactive ten, cut from angiotensinogen by renin, one step from the pressor.

The pressor: it tightens arteries, retains salt, and drives thirst and aldosterone.

Angiotensin II minus one, and the brain’s own pressor.

A six-residue angiotensin that sharpens memory in rats.

The counterweight to angiotensin II: it relaxes, protects and soothes.

What ACE2 makes from angiotensin I, with a protective turn of its own.

The nine-residue cause of swelling and pain, and of the ACE-inhibitor cough.

Bradykinin with a lysine in front, made in tissue rather than blood.

Bradykinin minus its last residue, speaking to the receptor inflammation induces.

A piece of chromogranin A that holds back adrenaline.

The first 76 residues of chromogranin A, which loosen tight arteries.

A longer vasostatin, from the start of chromogranin A to residue 113.

A tachykinin from outside the nervous system, made by blood and immune cells.

The skin’s switch from dark pigment to yellow, by blocking a melanocortin receptor.

The skin’s own antibiotic, switched on by vitamin D.

The most abundant defensin, packed into the neutrophil’s granules.

HNP-1 with one residue changed, from a neighbouring gene copy.

Not a gene product but a trimming: HNP-1 or HNP-3 without their first residue.

The rare fourth neutrophil defensin, with a sequence of its own.

The Paneth cell’s main weapon, guarding the small intestine’s crypts.

A defensin that does not kill but nets: it traps bacteria in self-made fibrils.

The always-on defensin of skin, kidney and every lining.

The defensin the skin makes when it is infected or inflamed.

The most potent beta-defensin, which kills staphylococci in salt where others fail.

A sparsely made defensin of the airway and testis.

Sweat’s own antibiotic, which no other tissue makes.

Found as an antibiotic, it turned out to be ghrelin’s natural opponent.

The fragment released at the centre of every complement cascade.

The body’s loudest call for neutrophils, and a drug target in vasculitis.

The cytotoxic T cell’s antibiotic, delivered into infected cells alongside perforin.

The cell’s main actin buffer, with a second life as a repair peptide.

Thymosin beta-4’s smaller relative, more at home in the embryo and in tumours.

A thymosin of prostate cancer, studied as a marker of how far it spreads.

An immune peptide approved in many countries, but never by the FDA.

The first growth factor found, which earned a Nobel Prize and heals the gut lining.

EGF’s relative made by the cells it stimulates, and by many tumours.

A growth factor of repair that also tells regulatory T cells to calm a tissue.

An EGF-family factor of the ovulating follicle and the colon tumour.

A growth factor the heart needs to form, and diphtheria toxin’s door into cells.

An EGF-family factor named for the beta cell, which it can regrow in mice.

The thyroid’s brake on bone breakdown.

The calcium thermostat, and the one hormone that builds bone when given in pulses.

Cancer’s cause of high calcium; in health, the shaper of bone, teeth and breast.

The bone hormone that tells the kidney to waste phosphate.

The brake on muscle growth: lose the gene and the muscles double.

The exercise hormone of 2012, cut from a muscle membrane protein, still argued over.

A micropeptide hidden in a “non-coding” RNA that slows muscle’s calcium pump.

A tiny peptide that speeds the heart’s calcium pump by pushing its brake aside.

A micropeptide in the mitochondrial membrane that helps muscle burn fat.

A micropeptide needed to assemble complex III of the respiratory chain.

The micropeptide that lets muscle cells fuse into fibres.

A lysosomal micropeptide that holds back mTORC1 and slows muscle regeneration.

The heart’s calcium-pump brake, released by adrenaline, and a cardiomyopathy gene.

A 31-residue muscle peptide that makes the calcium pump waste energy as heat.

The switch that starts puberty.

A trimmed kisspeptin, as active as the full hormone at the receptor.

Thirteen residues of kisspeptin, enough to fire the puberty signal.

The ten-residue core of kisspeptin, the form most used in experiments.

A relaxin gene found only in apes and people, whose job is not known.

The pregnancy hormone of soft vessels and ligaments, which failed in heart failure.

The Leydig cell’s hormone that pulls the testes down before birth.

A placental peptide of the primates with no receptor found.

A testis peptide the sperm-making cells need, in mice at least.

The placenta’s own growth hormone, ruling the mother’s blood from mid-pregnancy.

The placenta’s most abundant protein, a gram a day at term, retuning the mother.

The pregnancy hormone: the test, the trigger, and a diet with no evidence.

The protein that binds and silences activin and myostatin.

The dominant follicle’s signal to switch FSH off, and a pregnancy-screen marker.

The marker of small follicles in women and of sperm production in men.

FSH release, follicle growth, inflammation, and bone where it should not be.

The activin of liver and pituitary, which raises hepcidin in inflammation.

The mixed activin: one beta-A chain and one beta-B.

A chromogranin A fragment that pushes glucose up and insulin’s effect down.

A fragment of secretogranin II that heals vessels and foretells heart trouble.

The fat tissue’s report to the brain on how much fuel is stored.

The fat hormone that is high in lean people and makes insulin work better.

Named for insulin resistance in mice; in people, a product of white blood cells.

The liver’s fasting and sugar-stress hormone, and a fatty liver drug in the making.

The body’s nausea signal: raised by cancer, pregnancy, metformin and illness.

Myostatin’s twin, briefly famous as the youth factor in old mice’s blood.

The first peptide found encoded in mitochondrial DNA, a guard against cell stress.

A mitochondrial peptide that mimics exercise in mice, traded on that promise.

The first of six small peptides found beside humanin in the mitochondrial 16S gene.

The most studied of the small humanin-like peptides, protective in cells and rats.

A small humanin-like peptide that aids cell survival but not insulin action in rats.

A small humanin-like peptide that speeds cell growth in culture.

A small humanin-like peptide with little activity found so far.

The one small humanin-like peptide that kills cells rather than saving them.

A mitochondrial peptide whose common variant raises Alzheimer’s risk.

A micropeptide on the outer mitochondrial membrane that talks to the stressed ER.

A 68-residue micropeptide that breaks up the cell’s RNA storage granules.