Abstract: | The opioid peptides present extraordinary problems for analysis, since they are structurally homologous yet substantially different. Within each of the three systems, proopiomelanocortin, proenkephalin and prodynorphin, a whole set of peptides of successively smaller sizes are generated. The biological relevance of the different peptides is not fully understood. Analytical strategies may either be specifically directed to individual peptide species or to identification of total system output. |