β-Endorphin

Three β_h-EP analogs which show different extents of alteration in analgesic potency by substitution of a single amino acid residue were assayed for their peripheral opioid activity and the binding to opioid μ-receptor to determine the relationships among the opioid activities obtained from different assays. In the guinea pig ileum assay, [Gln⁸]-β_h-EP showed a higher inhibitory activity than the parent peptide. [Tyr³¹]-analog had the same potency as β_h-EP, while [Trp²⁷]-analog retained only one fourth the potency of β_h-EP. Assayed on the vas deferens of the mouse and the rat, all three substituted β_h-EP analogs exhibited a lower potency than their parent peptide. Receptor binding assay using [³H]-dihydromorphine as the primary ligand showed that [Gln⁸]-analog had a binding potency 1.5-fold that of β_h-EP, while the potencies of [Tyr³¹]- and [Trp²⁷]-analogs were not significantly different from that of the parent peptide. No correlation in relative potency was found between vas deferens assays and their μ-receptor binding or analgesic activity. However, the relative potencies of binding to μ-receptor in [Gln⁸]- and [Tyr³¹]-analogs were found to be consistent with those of analgesic and guinea pig ileum assays, whereas the binding to β-EP receptor of all analogs appeared to be related to the charge properties of β-EP molecule.