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Anandamide produced by Ca2+-insensitive enzymes induces excitation in primary sensory neurons

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Abstract

The endogenous lipid agent N-arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide), among other effects, has been shown to be involved in nociceptive processing both in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Anandamide is thought to be synthesised by several enzymatic pathways both in a Ca2+-sensitive and Ca2+-insensitive manner, and rat primary sensory neurons produce anandamide. Here, we show for the first time, that cultured rat primary sensory neurons express at least four of the five known Ca2+-insensitive enzymes implicated in the synthesis of anandamide, and that application of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-arachidonoyl, the common substrate of the anandamide-synthesising pathways, results in anandamide production which is not changed by the removal of extracellular Ca2+. We also show that anandamide, which has been synthesised in primary sensory neurons following the application of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-arachidonoyl induces a transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 ion channel-mediated excitatory effect that is not inhibited by concomitant activation of the cannabinoid type 1 receptor. Finally, we show that sub-populations of transient receptor potential vanilloid type 1 ion channel-expressing primary sensory neurons also express some of the putative Ca2+-insensitive anandamide-synthesising enzymes. Together, these findings indicate that anandamide synthesised by primary sensory neuron via a Ca2+-insensitive manner has an excitatory rather than an inhibitory role in primary sensory neurons and that excitation is mediated predominantly through autocrine signalling. Regulation of the activity of the Ca2+-insensitive anandamide-synthesising enzymes in these neurons may be capable of regulating the activity of these cells, with potential relevance to controlling nociceptive processing.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Professor Stuart Bevan and Dr David Andersson (King's College London, UK) for their help and support with the Ca2+-imaging experiments and their very useful and constructive comments. The authors are also grateful to Dr Ed Smith (Imperial College London, UK) for his help in the TLC study. Parts of this work were supported by a project grant from the Wellcome Trust (061637/Z/06/Z). Agnes Jenes was supported by a BJA/RCoA Project Grant. Angelika Varga has been supported by a European Union Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (254661). Joao Valente has been supported by a PhD studentship from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (Portugal).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Anaesthetics, Pain Medicine and Intensive Care, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, 369 Fulham Road, London, SW10 9NH, UK

    Angelika Varga, Agnes Jenes, Joao Sousa-Valente, Jie Chen, Srikumaran Selvarajah, Anna P. Andreou, John P. M. White & Istvan Nagy

  2. Department of Physiology, University of Debrecen, Medical and Health Science Center, Nagyerdei krt. 98, Debrecen, 4012, Hungary

    Agnes Jenes & Laszlo Csernoch

  3. Endocannabinoid Research Group, Reproductive Science Section, Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine, University of Leicester, RKCSB, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, LE2 7LX, UK

    Timothy H. Marczylo & Anthony H. Taylor

  4. Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Alameda Prof. Hernani Monteiro, 4200-319, Porto, Portugal

    Joao Sousa-Valente

  5. Department of Anaesthesiology, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Gaotanyan 19 Street, Shapingba, Chongqing, 400038, China

    Jie Chen

  6. Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, Evotec (UK) Ltd, 114 Milton Park, Abingdon, OX14 4SA, UK

    Jonothan Austin & Mohammed Yaqoob

  7. Endocannabinoid Research Group, Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Campi Flegrei 34, Comprensorio Olivetti, 80078, Pozzuoli, (NA), Italy

    Fabiana Piscitelli & Vincenzo Di Marzo

  8. Cancer Cell Biology, Division of Cancer, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0HS, UK

    Fiona Kyle & Laki Buluwela

  9. Cardiovascular Division, King’s College London, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, UK

    Sue Brain

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  1. Angelika Varga
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Correspondence to Istvan Nagy.

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A. Varga and A. Jenes contributed equally to this work.

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Varga, A., Jenes, A., Marczylo, T.H. et al. Anandamide produced by Ca2+-insensitive enzymes induces excitation in primary sensory neurons. Pflugers Arch - Eur J Physiol 466, 1421–1435 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00424-013-1360-7

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