Pathway
This enzyme acts as the second step of a biochemical pathway initiated by the creation of N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine, by means of the transfer of an acyl group from the sn-1 position of glycerophospholipid onto the amino group of phosphatidylethanolamine. While NAPE-PLD contributes to the biosynthesis of several NAEs in the mammalian central nervous system, this enzyme is not responsible for the formation of the endocannabinoid anandamide, since NAPE-PLD knockout mice have wild-type levels of this lipid.
The N-acylethanolamines released by this enzyme become potential substrates for fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), which hydrolyzes the free fatty acids from ethanolamine. Defects in this enzyme can cause NAPE-PLD products such as anandamide to build up to levels 15-fold higher than normally observed.
Read more about this topic: N-acyl Phosphatidylethanolamine-specific Phospholipase D
Famous quotes containing the word pathway:
“To learn from our enemies is the best pathway to loving them: for it makes us grateful to them.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Socrates drinking the hemlock,
And Jesus on the rood;
And millions who, humble and nameless,
The straight, hard pathway plod—
Some call it Consecration,
And others call it God.”
—William Herbet Carruth (1859–1929)
“And open field, through which the pathway wound,
And homeward led my steps. Magnificent
The morning rose, in memorable pomp,
Glorious as e’er I had beheld—in front,
The sea lay laughing at a distance; near,
The solid mountains shone, bright as the clouds,
Grain-tinctured, drenched in empyrean light;”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)