The Physiology of Neuronostatin

Abstract

In 2008, the first evidence of a new hormone called neuronostatin was published. The hormone was discovered using a bioinformatic method and found to originate from the same preprohormone as somatostatin. This small peptide hormone of 13 amino acids and a C-terminal amidation was soon found to exert pleiotropic physiological effects. In animal studies, neuronostatin has been shown to reduce food intake and delay gastric emptying and gastrointestinal transit. Furthermore, neuronostatin has been shown to affect glucose metabolism by increasing glucagon secretion during situations when glucose concentrations are low. Additionally, neuronostatin has been shown to affect neural tissue and cardiomyocytes by suppressing cardiac contractility. The effects of neuronostatin have not yet been delineated in humans, but if the effects found in animal studies translate to humans it could position neuronostatin as a promising target in the treatment of obesity, hypertension and diabetes. In this review, we describe the discovery of neuronostatin and the current understanding of its physiological role and potential therapeutic applicability.

Department(s)

Biological Sciences

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1479-683X; 0804-4643

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Oxford University Press, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Oct 2021

PubMed ID

34370694

Link to Full Text

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