Cardiovascular effects of neuropeptide FF antagonists.

The neuropeptide FF (NPFF) antagonist desaminotyrosyl-Phe-Leu-Phe-Gln-Pro-Gln-Arg-NH2 dose-dependently reversed NPFF-induced elevation of blood pressure in anesthetized rats after intravenous injection without causing a significant change of blood pressure and heart rate by itself. However, another antagonist dansyl-Pro-Gln-Arg-NH2 produced a significant drop of the mean arterial pressure only at a large dose (10 micromol/kg body weight), but reversal of the NPFF-induced hypertension was modest. Consequently and contrary to the conclusions of a previous study, NPFF antagonists cannot be identified simply by measuring the changes in the hemodynamic parameters upon the injection of the compounds alone and without a subsequent NPFF challenge.