The analgesic activity of some tuftsin- and tuftsin inhibitor-like fragments of the viral coat proteins.

: Antinociceptive activity of seven pentapeptide fragments of human adenovirus type 2 (Ad2) virion proteins: Thr-Val-Pro-Pro-Arg (1), Thr-Arg-Pro-Pro-Arg (2), Thr-Gly-Pro-Pro-Thr (3), Pro-Arg-Pro-Pro-Thr (4), Phe-Val-Pro-Pro-Arg (5), Ala-Arg-Pro-Pro-Ala (6), Tyr-Gly-Pro-Pro-Lys (7)--analogs of known tuftsin inhibitor Thr-Lys-Pro-Pro-Arg, was measured by hot-plate procedure. Also two tuftsin-like fragments of epitopes of HIV-1 and HIV-2: Thr-Lys-Ala-Lys (8), Thr-Lys-Glu-Lys (9), and tuftsin analog Thr-Lys-Asp-Lys (10) were tested. In the control experiments the effects of tuftsin and pentapeptide tuftsin inhibitor were also studied. The peptides 2, 4 and 5 were found to produce very strong analgesia after the icv injection. It was observed that pretreatment with peptide 8 remarkably diminished the antinociceptive effect induced by tuftsin.