Pert conducted a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship with the Department of Pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1974 to 1975. She conducted research at the National Institute of Mental Health from 1975 to 1987.
In 1983, she became the Chief of the Section on Brain Biochemistry of the Clinical Neuroscience Branch, the only female chief at NIMH.[3]
She left to found and direct a private biotech laboratory in 1987.
Pert published over 250 scientific articles on peptides and their receptors and the role of these neuropeptides in the immune system.
She held a number of patents for modified peptides in the treatment of psoriasis, Alzheimer's disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, stroke and head trauma.
One of her modified peptides, Peptide T, had been considered for the treatment of AIDS and neuroAIDS. A placebo-controlled, three-site, 200+ patient NIH-funded clinical trial which was principally concerned with possible neurocognitive improvements, was conducted between 1990 and 1995. It was found that the effect of Peptide T was not significantly different from that of placebo on the primary end points of the study - various aspects of brain function. However, Peptide T was associated with improved performance (memory and learning) in the subgroup of patients with more severe cognitive impairment.[7]
A long-delayed analysis of antiviral effects from the NIH study showed peripheral viral load (combined plasma and serum) was significantly reduced in the DAPTA-treated group.[8]
An eleven-person study of Peptide T effects on cellular viral load showed reductions in infected monocyte reservoir to undetectable levels in most of the patients.[9]
Pert was developing orally active peptide anti-inflammatory treatments for pain and Alzheimer's Disease and studies for treatment of HIV persistent viral reservoirs.
Pert lectured worldwide on peptide and other subjects, including her theories on emotions and mind-body communication.
Her popular book, Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel, (Scribner, 1997) expounded on her research and theories.
She was featured in Washingtonian magazine (December 2001) as one of Washington's fifty "Best and Brightest" individuals.[10]
The Sydney Morning Herald profiled Pert in 2004:
As a mere graduate student, in 1972 Candace Pert discovered the brain’s opiate receptor – the cellular site where the body’s painkillers and "bliss-makers", the endorphins – bond with cells to weave their magic.
Pert's discovery led to a revolution in neuroscience, helping open the door to the "information-based" model of the brain which is now replacing the old "structuralist" model...
Molecules of Emotion begins as an eye-opener into the intellectual warfare of modern scientific discovery – the gamesmanship, the sly purloining of others' results – but also into the round-the-clock work, the exhilaration of a shared breakthrough, and the slow, painful rise of women in the scientific professions.
The book concludes with the author integrating the science she pioneered with the holistic "energy medicines" which work on the same principles – till now without scientific rationales.[11]
Pert's experimental drug Peptide T is referenced as an alternative HIV/AIDS treatment in the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club.
Pert was honored by the New York Open Center on November 7, 2006, for her "leadership across the bridge between science and heart."[This quote needs a citation]
Pert received the first time award of the Theophrastus Paracelsus Foundation in Holistic Medicine for her pioneering work in the area of psychoneuroimmunology (St Gallen, Switzerland) on April 12, 2008.
^"Pert, Candace B. (1946–)". Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Thomson Gale. January 1, 2007. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 5, 2012 – via HighBeam Research.
^Goodkin K, Vitiello B, Lyman WD, et al. (June 2006). "Cerebrospinal and peripheral human immunodeficiency virus type 1 load in a multisite, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of D-Ala1-peptide T-amide for HIV-1-associated cognitive-motor impairment". Journal of Neurovirology. 12 (3): 178–89. doi:10.1080/13550280600827344. PMID16877299. S2CID12925475.
^Polianova MT, Ruscetti FW, Pert CB, et al. (July 2003). "Antiviral and immunological benefits in HIV patients receiving intranasal peptide T (DAPTA)". Peptides. 24 (7): 1093–8. doi:10.1016/S0196-9781(03)00176-1. PMID14499289. S2CID40797488.
