| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,940,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,140,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,950,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥450,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
VGF represents a neurosecretory protein expressed in a subset of hypothalamic neurons and endocrine cells. It has been considered a precursor to some neuropeptides because of several pairs of basic amino acid residues. This complexity has defied conventional approaches to studying the whole picture of its processing, which would provide a clue to elucidating the biological function. Alternatively we have advocated a mass spectrometry-based peptide profiling method with an aim of inspecting peptides secreted by VGF-expressing endocrine cells. Our study has revealed that the precursor undergoes limited proteolysis to more than 15 processing products, with a diverse set of post-translational modifications. One of the processed peptides proved to be an endogenous suppressor of insulin secretion. Our peptidomics approach would be extended to different proteins without relying on antibodies.
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