Endogenous neuropeptides and regulation of the brain functional plasticity

This review analysed the data about the neuropeptides secreted from the different brain structures. Involvement of the endogenous neuropeptides in synaptic plasticity was tested at the model of long-term potentiation (LTP) as a form of learning and the memory formation. The most of these neuropeptides or their fragments involves in the induction and maintenance of the LTP and provides the transformation of short-term excitability of the neurones into the long-term one. They may be considered as nootropic compounds. It is proposed that the system of peptidergic regulation of neuronal plasticity functionates in the brain and there are a possibility to correct the activity of this system during the different pathology.