Peptide directoryWhole body

Secretoneurin

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

Where it comes from

Made in
Neurons, endocrine cells and the heart, cut from secretogranin II
Sent out by
With neurotransmitters and hormones; rises sharply in heart failure, sepsis and after cardiac arrest
Acts on
  • Endothelial cells (new vessels)
  • Heart muscle (CaMKII)
  • Immune cells

What it does

  • Promotes new blood vessels in injured tissue, acting on endothelial cells directly rather than through the usual growth factors 1
  • Inhibits CaMKII in heart muscle, which is how it damps calcium-driven arrhythmia 2
  • A chemoattractant for monocytes and eosinophils 4

In medicine

  • A research marker that predicts death in heart failure, after cardiac arrest and in sepsis, adding to what troponin and BNP tell 3
  • No approved medicine and no routine assay, which is why the prognostic findings have not changed practice 3

Beyond the body’s own use

  • Gene transfer of secretoneurin grew new vessels in animal models of limb ischaemia and heart attack; none of it went forward in people 1
  • Unlike humanin or MOTS-c it is not taken outside medicine. The open question is whether an endogenous CaMKII inhibitor could be made into an antiarrhythmic 2

Sources

  1. Kirchmair et al., Secretoneurin acts as a direct angiogenic cytokine, Circulation 2004
  2. Ottesen et al., Secretoneurin is an endogenous CaMKII inhibitor that attenuates arrhythmia, Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology 2019
  3. Røsjø et al., Prognostic value of secretoneurin in severe sepsis and septic shock, Critical Care Medicine 2018
  4. Wiedermann, Secretoneurin, a functional neuropeptide in health and disease, Peptides 2000

This card describes what a medicine is for and what the evidence says; it recommends nothing. Talk to your clinician about anything you read here.