Dear Colleagues,

Intense research activity in the field of neuropeptides has led to the identification of numerous naturally occurring endogenous peptides that act as neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, or trophic factors, mediating brain functions. Neuropeptides are implicated in a wide range of diseases, including those affecting food intake, reproduction, learning and memory, and social behaviors, as well as neurodegenerative disorders, epilepsy, depression, and anxiety, just to mention a few. Neuropeptide receptors are increasingly explored as potential targets in brain diseases. The targeting of neuropeptide receptors with native peptides often poses pharmacokinetic obstacles, e.g., poor stability and low blood–brain barrier penetrance. Consequently, it has been necessary to focus on developing short synthetic peptides or peptide mimetics modeled after the solvent-exposed interfaces of bigger molecules. Furthermore, their combination with cell-penetrating peptide motifs also opens up the possibility of reaching intracellular targets. Other solutions for the therapeutic targeting of neuropeptide systems are non-peptide ligands acting as agonists or antagonists or various multi-cargo delivery systems, such as nanoparticles. Recently, it is also being increasingly explored to use gene therapeutic methods to regulate the expression of peptides or their receptors in specific brain regions and cell populations to treat various brain pathologies.

This Special Issue of Biomolecules is dedicated to exploring the roles of neuropeptides in brain diseases as well as as therapeutic targets for novel treatments. We encourage scientists of diverse backgrounds (neuroscientists, clinicians, systems medicine scientists, geneticists, molecular biologists, and neuropharmacologists) to contribute original research or review articles covering studies on neuropeptide-related biomolecules in brain diseases or translational approaches of clinical relevance.

Dr. David Woldbye
Dr. Stanislava Pankratova
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• therapeutic target
• brain diseases
• neuropeptide receptor signaling
• peptide mimetics
• neuroinflammation
• neurological and psychiatric diseases
• neurogenetics
• gene therapeutic methods
• cell penetrating peptides
• clinical translation