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Lipidomic methodologies applicable to the study of endocannabinoids and related compounds: Endocannabinoidomics
Author(s) -
Bisogno Tiziana,
Piscitelli Fabiana,
Di Marzo Vincenzo
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
european journal of lipid science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.614
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1438-9312
pISSN - 1438-7697
DOI - 10.1002/ejlt.200800233
Subject(s) - lipidomics , endocannabinoid system , cannabinoid receptor , lipid signaling , arachidonic acid , cannabinoid , metabolomics , metabolome , anandamide , chemistry , biochemistry , receptor , computational biology , biology , bioinformatics , enzyme , agonist
The identification of the endogenous ligands of the cannabinoid CB 1 and CB 2 receptors (endocannabinoids) as lipids nominally derived from arachidonic acid was a further demonstration that lipid molecules can be endowed with important signaling functions. This discovery was paralleled by the development of ever more sophisticated technologies for the profiling of small molecules, and the subsequent birth and exponential growth of the discipline of “metabolomics” and, in the case of analytical techniques for lipids, of its subdiscipline known as “lipidomics”. The application of lipidomics to the analysis of endocannabinoids, and of endocannabinoid‐like molecules with activities also at non‐cannabinoid receptors, is now culminating in the identification of more families of fatty acid derivatives, thus revealing what has been defined as the “endocannabinoid metabolome”, and in the development of specific techniques for the lipidomic profiling of these molecules. These new analytical advances are discussed in this article.