加拿大麦吉尔大学Bratislav Misic团队揭示了人脑中神经肽系统的组织。相关论文发表在2026年3月17日出版的《自然—神经科学》杂志上。

在这里，课题组全面绘制了人类全脑神经肽受体在多个描述水平上的组织，包括分子和细胞嵌入，中尺度连接和宏观尺度认知专业化。利用基因转录作为代理，该课题组研究人员重建了14个不同神经肽家族的38个神经肽受体的皮质和皮质下地图集。研究人员发现大多数神经肽受体在皮层或皮层下高度表达，描绘了皮层-皮层下的解剖梯度。将神经肽受体映射到下丘脑核，该课题组证明了神经肽受体基因表达概括了下丘脑的基本解剖划分。神经肽优先与代谢性神经递质共定位，表明在缓慢作用的分子信号传导机制之间存在全系统的对应关系。

为了研究分布神经肽系统的行为后果，课题组研究人员将元分析解码应用于神经肽图，并显示了从感觉认知到奖励和身体功能的一系列功能。最后，通过进化分析，课题组发现早期哺乳动物对神经肽进行了扩展的正向选择，这表明神经肽的完善与新皮层和更高认知功能的出现是一致的。总的来说，这些结果表明神经肽受体在人类大脑中高度组织，并与大脑结构和功能的多种特征密切相关。

研究人员表示，神经肽是大脑中功能多样的信号分子，调节广泛的基础身体和认知过程。尽管它们很重要，但神经肽在人脑中的分布和功能仍未被充分探索。

附：英文原文

Title: Organization of neuropeptide systems in the human brain

Author: Ceballos, Eric G., Farahani, Asa, Liu, Zhen-Qi, Milisav, Filip, Hansen, Justine Y., Dagher, Alain, Misic, Bratislav

Issue&Volume: 2026-03-17

Abstract: Neuropeptides are functionally diverse signaling molecules in the brain, regulating a wide range of basal bodily and cognitive processes. Despite their importance, the distribution and function of neuropeptides in the human brain remains underexplored. Here we comprehensively map the organization of human whole-brain neuropeptide receptors across multiple levels of description, including molecular and cellular embedding, mesoscale connectivity and macroscale cognitive specialization. Using gene transcription as a proxy, we reconstruct a topographical cortical and subcortical atlas of 38 neuropeptide receptors across 14 different neuropeptide families. We find that most neuropeptide receptors are highly expressed either in the cortex or subcortex, delineating an anatomical cortical–subcortical gradient. Mapping neuropeptide receptors onto hypothalamic nuclei, we demonstrate that neuropeptide receptor gene expression recapitulates fundamental anatomical divisions in the hypothalamus. Neuropeptides preferentially colocalize with metabotropic neurotransmitters, suggesting a system-wide correspondence between slow-acting molecular signaling mechanisms. To investigate the behavioral consequences of distributed neuropeptide systems, we apply meta-analytical decoding to neuropeptide maps and show a spectrum of functions, from sensory-cognitive to reward and bodily functions. Finally, using evolutionary analysis we find extended positive selection for neuropeptides in early mammals, suggesting that refinement of neuropeptides coincides with the emergence of neocortex and higher cognitive function. Collectively, these results show that neuropeptide receptors are highly organized across the human brain and closely intertwined with multiple features of brain structure and function.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-026-02236-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02236-w