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Nature Neuroscience 11, 124–126 (1 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/nn0208-124
Why endocannabinoids are not all alike
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Abstract
New work in this issue shows that one principal endocannabinoid, anandamide, directly inhibits the synthesis of another, 2-arachidonoylglycerol. This finding could explain a number of puzzling observations in the endocannabinoid field. When N-arachidonoylethanolamine (better known as anandamide, from the Sanskrit word ananda for “bliss”) was discovered as the first endogenous ligand for the G protein–coupled receptors of plant cannabinoids, nobody suspected that it would break so many of the established rules for endogenous chemical signals. Yet over the past 15 years, we have gotten used to being surprised by this small lipid mediator.
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