The endocannabinoid system: a general view and latest additions

After the discovery, in the early 1990s, of specific G‐protein‐coupled receptors for marijuana's psychoactive principle Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol, the cannabinoid receptors, and of their endogenous agonists, the endocannabinoids, a decade of investigations has greatly enlarged our understanding o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of pharmacology 2004-03, Vol.141 (5), p.765-774
Main Authors: Petrocellis, Luciano De, Cascio, Maria Grazia, Marzo, Vincenzo Di
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
2‐arachidonoylglycerol
anandamide
Animals
Biological and medical sciences
cannabinoid
Cannabinoid Receptor Modulators - chemistry
Cannabinoid Receptor Modulators - metabolism
Cannabinoid Receptor Modulators - physiology
Endocannabinoids
Humans
Medical sciences
Mini Reviews
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
phosphatidic
receptor
Receptors, Cannabinoid - physiology
Signal Transduction - physiology
vanilloid
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Summary:After the discovery, in the early 1990s, of specific G‐protein‐coupled receptors for marijuana's psychoactive principle Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabinol, the cannabinoid receptors, and of their endogenous agonists, the endocannabinoids, a decade of investigations has greatly enlarged our understanding of this altogether new signalling system. Yet, while the finding of the endocannabinoids resulted in a new effort to reveal the mechanisms regulating their levels in the brain and peripheral organs under physiological and pathological conditions, more endogenous substances with a similar action, and more molecular targets for the previously discovered endogenous ligands, anandamide and 2‐arachidonoylglycerol, or for some of their metabolites, were being proposed. As the scenario becomes subsequently more complicated, and the experimental tasks to be accomplished correspondingly more numerous, we briefly review in this article the latest ‘additions’ to the endocannabinoid system together with earlier breakthroughs that have contributed to our present knowledge of the biochemistry and pharmacology of the endocannabinoids. British Journal of Pharmacology (2004) 141, 765–774. doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0705666
ISSN:0007-1188
1476-5381
DOI:10.1038/sj.bjp.0705666