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Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules

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Synonyms

Anandamide amidohydrolase; Oleamide hydrolase

Historical Background

A membrane-associated enzyme activity from rat liver that hydrolyzes N-acylethanolamine (NAE) species containing unsaturated and monounsaturated acyl chains was first described in 1985 by Schmid and colleagues (1985). Subsequently, an enzyme activity with similar properties that breaks the sleep-inducing substance cis-9-octadecenamide (oleamide) was reported and suggested to represent a general mechanism for terminating NAEs signaling in vivo. Nonetheless, the actual enzymes involved in NAEs metabolism remained unknown until the late 1990s, when Cravatt and colleagues purified this amidohydrolase activity from rat liver membranes (Cravatt et al. 1996). This enzyme, named fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH; E.C. 3.5.1.4), was shown to be specifically inhibitable (Deutsch et al. 1997), was recombinantly expressed, and was found to hydrolyze several endogenous NAEs, including the neuromodulator/neurotransmitter N-a...

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Medicine and Surgery, Tor Vergata University of Rome, Via Montpellier 1, 00121, Rome, Italy

    Filomena Fezza, Monica Bari & Domenico Fazio

  2. Department of Medicine, Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, Via Alvaro del Portillo 21, 00128, Rome, Italy

    Mauro Maccarrone

  3. European Center for Brain Research/IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Via del Fosso di Fiorano 64, 00143, Rome, Italy

    Mauro Maccarrone

  4. Unit of Basic and Applied Bioscience, University of Teramo, Via Renato Balzarini 1, 64100, Teramo, Italy

    Domenico Fazio

Authors
  1. Filomena Fezza
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  2. Monica Bari
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  3. Domenico Fazio
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  4. Mauro Maccarrone
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mauro Maccarrone .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Biological Science, Department of Molecular Science and Tech College of Natural Science, Suwon, Korea (Republic of)

    Sangdun Choi

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Fezza, F., Bari, M., Fazio, D., Maccarrone, M. (2016). Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_101566-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_101566-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6438-9

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