Pnoc - prepronociceptin

This gene encodes the precursor for neuropeptides that have been implicated in a wide range of physiological roles such as transmission and sensitivity to pain, learning, memory, anxiety and depression, in the central nervous system. The encoded protein is a precursor that is proteolytically processed to generate multiple biologically active peptides including nociceptin and nocistatin which have opposite functions in pain transmission. Mice lacking the encoded protein display increased anxiety, elevated basal pain threshold and impaired adaptation to repeated stress. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2015]