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Renal actions of synthetic Dendroaspis natriuretic peptide.

Dendroaspis natriuretic peptide (DNP), recently isolated from the venom of the green Mamba snake Dendroaspis angusticeps, is a 38 amino acid peptide containing a 17 amino acid disulfide ring structure similar to that of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP). DNP-like immunoreactivity (DNP-LI) was reported to be present in human plasma and atrial myocardium and to be elevated in human congestive heart failure. Although previously named DNP, it remains unknown if DNP is natriuretic or if is it present in canine plasma, urine, and atrial myocardium.

Studies were performed in vivo in anesthetized dogs (N = 6) using intravenous infusion of synthetic DNP at 10 and 50 ng/kg/min. Employing a sensitive and specific radioimmunoassay for DNP, the presence of DNP-like …