Isolation of maxadilan, a potent vasodilatory peptide from the salivary glands of the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis

Abstract

Blood feeding by the sand fly Lutzomyia longipalpis is aided by the presence of a vasodilator in its salivary glands. This novel vasodilator has been isolated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Ten nanograms of the vasodilator are present in the extract of a pair of sand fly salivary glands. It has 500 times the vasodilatory activity of calcitonin gene-related peptide, previously the most potent vasodilator peptide known. This novel peptide is thus called maxadilan.