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The Interaction of Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase (FAAH) Inhibitors with an Anandamide Carrier Protein Using 19 F-NMR

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Abstract

It has been reported that the endocannabinoid anandamide (AEA) binds to a class of fatty acid-binding proteins and serum albumin which can serve as carrier proteins and potentiate the cellular uptake of AEA and its intracellular translocation. Here, we employed 19F nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to study the interactions of serum albumin with two inhibitors of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), the enzyme involved in the deactivation of anandamide. We found that, for both inhibitors AM5206 and AM5207, the primary binding site on serum albumin is drug site 1 located at subdomain IIA. Neither inhibitor binds to drug site 2. While AM5207 binds exclusively to drug site 1, AM5206 also interacts with other fatty acid-binding sites on serum albumin. Additionally, AM5206 has an affinity for serum albumin approximately one order of magnitude higher than that of AM5207. The data suggest that interactions of FAAH inhibitors with albumin may provide added advantages for their ability to modulate endocannabinoid levels for a range of applications including analgesia, antiemesis, and neuroprotection.

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Abbreviations

AEA:

N-arachidonoylethanolamine or anandamide

BSA:

bovine serum albumin

FAAH:

fatty acid amide hydrolase

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NIH grants DA003801 (A.M.), DA007215 (A.M.), DA007312 (A.M.), and DA032020 (J.G.) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Drug Discovery, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Jianqin Zhuang, Spyros P. Nikas, Jianhong Zhao, Jianxin Guo & Alexandros Makriyannis

  2. Department of Chemistry, The College of Staten Island, City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New York, 10314, USA

    Jianqin Zhuang

  3. Physics Department, College of the Holy Cross, 1 College Street, Worcester, Massachusetts, 01610, USA

    De-Ping Yang

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  1. Jianqin Zhuang
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Correspondence to Jianxin Guo or Alexandros Makriyannis.

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Zhuang, J., Yang, DP., Nikas, S.P. et al. The Interaction of Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase (FAAH) Inhibitors with an Anandamide Carrier Protein Using 19 F-NMR . AAPS J 15, 477–482 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1208/s12248-013-9455-9

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