Endocannabinoids are lipid transmitters binding and activating the cannabinoid receptors. Both cannabinoid receptors and endocannabinoids, such as 2-arachidonoylglycerol and anandamide, have been shown to control numerous physiological and pathological processes, including in the central nervous system. Thus regulating endocannabinoid levels in-vivo represents an interesting therapeutic perspec...

Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) is a membrane-bound enzyme that inactivates a family of fatty acid amide molecules which are implicated in physiological processes such as pain and sleep. We cloned a 1.9 kb fragment of the 5 0-untranslated region of the mouse FAAH gene into the pGL3 basic luciferase reporter vector and showed that this sequence has promoter activity in vitro. By primer extensi...

Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase (formerly known as ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal esterase), from rabbit reticulocytes, has been shown to hydrolyze thiol esters formed between the ubiquitin carboxyl terminus and small thiols (e.g. glutathione), as well as free ubiquitin adenylate (Rose, I. A., and Warms, J. V. B. (1983) Biochemistry 22, 4234-4237). We now show that this enzyme hydrolyzes ami...

inhibitors of soluble epoxide hydrolase (seh) represent one of the novel pharmaceutical approaches for treating hypertension, vascular inflammation, pain and other cardiovascular related diseases. most of the potent seh inhibitors reported in literature often suffer from poor solubility and bioavailability. toward improving pharmacokinetic profile beside favorable potency, two series of 4-benza...

N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) are bioactive fatty acid derivatives that occur in all eukaryotes. In plants, NAEs have potent negative growth-regulating properties, and fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH)-mediated hydrolysis is a primary catabolic pathway that operates during seedling establishment to deplete these compounds. Alternatively, polyunsaturated (PU)-NAEs may serve as substrates for lipid ...