Typically, approach behaviour is displayed in the context of moving towards a desired goal, while avoidance behaviour is displayed in the context of moving away from threatening or novel stimuli. In the current research, we detected three sub-populations of C57BL/6J mice that spontaneously responded with avoiding, balancing or approaching behaviours in the presence of the same conflicting stimu...

2-Octyl gamma-bromoacetoacetate (O gamma Br), an endogenous compound originally isolated from human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), has previously been demonstrated to increase REM sleep duration in cats. Based on the chemical structure of O gamma Br and its reported sleep-inducing effects, we synthesized O gamma Br along with chemically related analogs and tested these compounds as inhibitors of fa...

Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) is a membranebound enzyme activity that degrades neuromodulatory fatty acid amides, including oleamide and anandamide. A single 2.5-kb FAAH mRNA is distributed throughout the rat CNS and accumulates progressively between embryonic day 14 and postnatal day 10, remains high until postnatal day 30, then decreases into adulthood. FAAH enzymatic activity, as measure...

Acetaminophen (paracetamol) is a popular domestic analgesic and antipyretic agent with a weak anti-inflammatory action and a low incidence of adverse effects as compared with aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Here we show that acetaminophen, following deacetylation to its primary amine, is conjugated with arachidonic acid in the brain and the spinal cord to form the poten...

Firefly luciferase is homologous to fatty acyl-CoA synthetases. We hypothesized that the firefly luciferase substrate d-luciferin and its analogs are fatty acid mimics that are ideally suited to probe the chemistry of enzymes that release fatty acid products. Here, we synthesized luciferin amides and found that these molecules are hydrolyzed to substrates for firefly luciferase by the enzyme fa...

Objective(s): Opioids and cannabinoids are two important compounds that have been shown to influence the activity of magnocellular neurons (MCNs) of supraoptic nucleus (SON). The interaction between opioidergic and cannabinoidergic systems in various structures of the brain and spinal cord is now well established, but not in the MCNs of SON. Materials and methods: In this study, whole cell pat...

Objective(s) Fatty acid is amide hydrolase which reduce endogenous anandamide. Transient receptor potential vanilloid-1 (TRPV1) channels have been reported to have a role in the modulation of anxiety-like behaviors in rodents. In the present study, the effects of either endocannabinoid system or TRPV1 channels and their possible interaction on anxiety-like behaviors of the rats were explored. ...