Drug Discovery Based on Thymopentin for Treating Anxiety and Depression

Thymopoietin(TP) was originally isolated from bovine thymic extracts on the basis of its ability to affect neuromuscular transmission when injected into mice (Goldstein, 1974). A 49 amino acid polypeptide was isolated and sequenced (Schlesinger and Goldstein, 1975). It is now evident that this molecule was created by proteolytic cleavage of larger thymopoietin proteins during isolation, and represents the N-terminal sequence of these proteins. Nevertheless, this proteolytic fragment was active in both neurophysiological and immunological experiments, and enabled the identification of an active pentapeptide. (amino acids 32 to 36, Arg-Lys-Asp-Val-Tyr, thymopentin), which. has been studied as an immunomodulatory drug.