2-Arachidonyl glyceryl ether

Overview
2-Arachidonyl glyceryl ether (2-AGE, Noladin ether) is a putative endocannabinoid discovered by Lumír Hanuš at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Its isolation from porcine brain and its structural elucidation and synthesis were described in 2001.

Detection
The presence of noladin in body tissue is disputed. Although a research group from Teikyo University, Kanagawa, Japan could not detect it in the brains of mice, hamsters, guinea-pigs or pigs, two other research groups successfully detected it in animal tissues.

Pharmacology
Noladin binds with a Ki of 21 nM to the CB1 receptor and 480 nM to the CB2 receptor. It shows agonistic behaviour on both receptors and is a partial agonist for the TRPV1 channel. After binding to CB2 receptors it inhibits adenylate cyclase and stimulates ERK-MAPK and regulates calcium transients.

In comparison to 2-arachidonoyl glycerol noladin is metabolically more stable resulting in a longer half-life time.

It lowers intraocular pressure, increases the uptake of GABA in the globus pallidus of rats and is neuroprotective by binding to and activation of PPARα.