Mass-Spectrometric Identification of Anandamide and 2-Arachidonoylglycerol in Nematodes

✍ Scribed by Marko Lehtonen; Kaja Reisner; Seppo Auriola; Garry Wong; James C. Callaway

• Book ID: 101776224
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 400 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1612-1872
• DOI: 10.1002/cbdv.200890208

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to see if nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans, Caenorhabditis briggsae, and Pelodera strongyloides) produce endocannabinoids; i.e., anandamide (AEA) and 2‐arachidonoylglycerol (2‐AG). In this study, AEA and 2‐AG were identified as endogenous products from nematodes by using electrospray‐ionization ion‐trap MS/MS (ESI‐IT‐MS) experiments operated in the positive‐ionization mode. Endocannabinoids were identified by product ion scan and concentrations were measured by triple quadrupole mass spectrometry in the multiple reaction monitoring mode (MRM). Both AEA and 2‐AG were identified in all of the nematode samples, even though these species lack known cannabinoid receptors. Neither AEA nor 2‐AG were detected in the fat‐3 mutant of C. elegans, which lacks the necessary enzyme to produce arachidonic acid, the fatty acid precursor of these endocannabinoids.