Fragment of human beta-fibrinogen induces a behavioral effect on mouse forced swimming.

We detected a peptide having a behavioral activity on mouse forced swimming from sera of healthy volunteers without affective and psychotic diseases. The amino acid sequence was GVNDNEEGF, which was found in the sequence of human beta-fibrinogen. The synthesized peptide also showed the behavioral activity dose-dependently, but human fibrinopeptide B (QGVDNEEGFFSAR) did not. The activity was decreased by dopamine 1 antagonist SCH-23390, but not by dopamine 2 antagonist sulpiride. These findings strongly suggest that metabolism of human beta-fibrinogen induces the fragment affecting the mouse behavior via the dopamine1 neuronal activity.