Delta sleep-inducing peptideDSIP
A naturally occurring nonapeptide named for a sleep effect that never fully replicated.
Identity
- Class
- Endogenous nonapeptide (Trp-Ala-Gly-Gly-Asp-Ala-Ser-Gly-Glu)
- Source
- Isolated from mammalian brain and blood; distribution poorly mapped
- Receptor
- No established receptor; no defined signaling pathway
Key properties
Approximate values for the native hormone. Engineered analogs are often deliberately larger and far longer-acting.
Mechanism
DSIP was isolated in the 1970s from the cerebral venous blood of sleeping rabbits and named for the delta-wave sleep it appeared to induce. Decades later it remains, in the words of its own review literature, an 'unresolved riddle': it is genuinely endogenous, yet no receptor, no biosynthetic gene, and no consistent physiological role have been pinned down, and the original sleep effect has proven hard to reproduce.
Reference notes
- It is one of the rare 'research peptides' that is unambiguously endogenous — the puzzle is what, if anything, it actually does.
- Reported effects sprawl across sleep, stress buffering, thermoregulation, and antioxidant activity, but none are firmly established.
- Its plasma half-life is extremely short, which complicates any simple dose-to-effect story.
Selected literature
Curated peer-reviewed reviews, sourced from PubMed. Selected for relevance, not exhaustive — open any entry on PubMed for the full record and its primary citations.
- 1.Delta sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP): a still unresolved riddle · Journal of neurochemistry, 2006 · PMID 16539679
- 2.Delta-sleep-inducing peptide (DSIP): a review · Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 1984 · PMID 6145137
- 3.Delta sleep-inducing peptide · European journal of anaesthesiology, 2001 · PMID 11437870