VIP is a peptide hormone containing 28 amino acid residues. Peptides are the family of molecules formed from the linking, in a defined order, of various amino acids. ...
Its role in the intestine is to greatly stimulate secretion of water and electrolytes, as well as dilating intestinal smooth muscle, dilating peripheral blood vessels, and inhibiting gastrin-stimulated gastric acid secretion. In humans, gastrin is a hormone that stimulates secretion of gastric acid by the stomach. ... Gastric acid is the main secretion of the stomach, characterised by H2O, hydrochloric acid and several enzymes (mainly pepsinogen). ...
It is also found in the brain and some autonomic nerves.
It has a half-life in the blood of about 2 minutes.
One convention is that those peptide chains that are short enough to be made synthetically from the constituent amino acids are called peptides rather than proteins.
Nonribosomal peptides are confined primarily to unicellular organisms, plants, and fungi.
A neuropeptide is a peptide that is active in association with neural tissue.