Topic summary
N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamine
Extracted from the Wikipedia article N-Acylphosphatidylethanolamine.
Endocannabinoid precursor
NAPEs are formed from phosphatidylethanolamines, a group of cell membrane phospholipids characteristic of nervous tissue. After being cleaved by phospholipases, NAPEs can be transformed into N-acylethanolamines, including the endocannabinoid anandamide. While NAPE-PLD is the enzyme responsible for catalyzing said release of N-acylethanolamine (NAE) from N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE), this specific subtype of phospholipase D is not exclusively responsible for the formation of anandamide.