β-endorphin

[lemonman]

Hi all, Only reply if you are sure of this and can back it up please. thanks. any help I greatly appreciate it. Do the following list of endorphins effect different receptors or do they all target the same receptor? And where are they located?. And are they powerful enough to give painkilling effects to someone like cancer?

α-endorphin, β-endorphin, γ-endorphin, α-neo-endorphin, and β-neo-endorphin


Thank you

 

[Seppi]

The endorphins all bind to opioid receptors, but among them, beta-endorphin has the highest selectivity for the mu-opioid receptor.

Endorphin peptides don't effectively penetrate the blood-brain barrier, so exogenously administered endorphins would have little to no psychoactive effect unless injected directly into the brain or perhaps the cerebrospinal fluid.

I edited/fixed Wikipedia's "Endorphins" and "endogenous opioid" articles on Wikipedia today; I'd suggest following those links for further information. Also, take note that α-neo-endorphin and β-neo-endorphin are actually classified as dynorphins, not endorphins.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

Always wondered how nicotine selectively significantly was selective for beta-endorphin after nic. acetyl. agonsim

 

[Seppi]

selectively significantly was selective

... can you rephrase that?

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

jumbled wording, my b. I mean whenever I heard about opioidergic activity in response to nicotinic agonists, I hear about beta-endorphin

 

[Seppi]

I'd expect that to be the case since there's surprisingly little research on alpha- and gamma-endorphin relative to beta-endorphin. I'm not really sure why.