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Factors influencing brain uptake of benzodiazepine derivatives were evaluated in adult Sprague Dawley rats (n = 8-10 per drug). Animals received single intraperitoneal doses of alprazolam, triazolam, lorazepam, flunitrazepam, diazepam, midazolam, desmethyldiazepam, or clobazam. Concentrations of each drug (and metabolites) in whole brain and serum 1 h after dosage were determined by gas chromatography. Serum free fraction was measured by equilibrium dialysis. In vitro binding affinity (apparent Ki) of each compound was estimated based on displacement of tritiated flunitrazepam in washed membrane preparations from rat cerebral cortex. Lipid solubility of each benzodiazepine was estimated using the reverse-phase liquid chromatographic (HPLC) retention index at physiologic pH. There was no significant relation between brain:total serum concentration ratio and either HPLC retention (r = 0.18) or binding Ki (r = -0.34). Correction of uptake ratios for free as opposed to total serum concentration yielded a highly significant correlation with HPLC retention (r = 0.78, P less than 0.005). However, even the corrected ratio was not correlated with binding Ki (r = -0.22). Thus a benzodiazepine's capacity to diffuse from systemic blood into brain tissue is much more closely associated with the physicochemical property of lipid solubility than with specific affinity. Unbound rather than total serum or plasma concentration most accurately reflects the quantity of drug available for diffusion.

This paper describes a highly specific and sensitive radioimmunoassay for a-human atrial natriuretic factor (a-hANF), the C-terminal 28-amino-acid residue portion of human prepro-ANF in human plasma. A novel extraction and prepurification procedure allowed for detection of levels of immunoreactive-a-hANF as low as 0.5 fmol/ml. In normotensive subjects, levels in the range l-23 fmol/ml (mean = 8.9 fmol/ml) were found. Combined gel permeation and HPLC analysis demonstrated that this ir-a-hANF was comprised virtually exclusively of authentic 28-residue a-hANF. No evidence for occurrence of larger precursor forms in human plasma was acquired. A heterogenous group of hypertensive patients displayed considerably higher levels (mean = 62.2 fmol/ml), of interest in view of the hypotensive properties of ANF.

Biologically active peptide hormones and neurotransmitters have been shown to be enzymatically liberated from larger, inactive precursor molecules by tissue-specific post-translational processing, particularly at the typical cleavage signals of paired basic residues. Subsequent N-terminal or C-terminal modifications may be of importance in regulating the biological activities of these peptides. C-terminal alpha-amidation is considered to be essential for the biological function of several non-opioid peptides. Here we present the isolation and structure of a novel C-terminally amidated opioid peptide, amidorphin, from bovine adrenal medulla. Amidorphin and the recently isolated octapeptide metorphamide (adrenorphin) are the only endogenous opioid peptides in mammals known to possess a C-terminal amide group. The amino acid sequence of amidorphin corresponds to the sequence 104-129 of bovine proenkephalin A. Very high concentrations of amidorphin were detected in bovine adrenal medulla and in a further endocrinological system, the hypothalamic-neurohypophyseal axis. Amidorphin may therefore be considered to be a major gene product of the opioid peptide precursor proenkephalin A in these endocrine tissues.

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