Abstract
Endocannabinoids1 are endogenous substances that bind to and activate at least one of the two high affinity membrane receptors discovered for marijuana’s psychoactive principle, (-)-io9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Three types of endocannabinoids have been described so far in both nervous and non-nervous tissues: 1) the anandamides,1 i.e. amides of ethanolamine with polyunsaturated fatty acids with at least twenty carbon atoms and three 1,4-diene double bonds, of which the C20: 4 homologue, arachi-donoylethanolamide (AEA)2,3 has been most thoroughly studied; 2) 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG)4,5; and 3) the recently described 2-arachidonyl glyceryl ether, or noladin ether,6 whose pharmacological activity as an endocannabinoid has not yet been thoroughly assessed. An entirely saturated AEA congener, palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), was proposed to act as an endocannabinoid at yet-to-be-characterized receptors, but the precise mechanism(s) underlying the THC-like anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity of this compound is(are) still a matter for speculation.7
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