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Mauro Maccarrone

Publications and source records attributed to Mauro Maccarrone.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2005

Anandamide metabolism by Tetrahymena pyriformis in vitro. Characterization and identification of a 66 kDa fatty acid amidohydrolase.

Fatty acid amidohydrolase, a membrane-bound enzyme found in a variety of mammalian cells, is responsible for the catabolism of neuromodulatory fatty acid amides, including anandamide. In an earlier study we reported that Tetrahymena pyriformis was able to secrete a FAAH-like activity in starvation medium (Karava V., Fasia L., Siafaka-Kapadai A., FEBS Lett. 508 (2001) 327-331). In this study the endocannabinoid anandamide, was found to be metabolized by T. pyriformis homogenate by the action of a FAAH-like enzyme, in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. The main metabolic products of [3H]anandamide hydrolysis were [3H]arachidonic acid and ethanolamine. Amidohydrolase activity was maximal at pH 9-10, it was inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride and arachidonyltrifluoromethyl ketone and was Ca2+ and Mg(2+)-independent. Kinetic experiments demonstrated that the enzyme had an apparent K(m) of 2.5 microM and V(max) of 20.6 nmol/min mg. Subcellular fractionation of T. pyriformis homogenate showed that the activity was present in every subcellular fraction with highest specific activity in the microsomal as well as in non-microsomal membrane fraction. Immunoblot analysis of selected subcellular fractions, using an anti-FAAH polyclonal antibody, revealed the presence of an immunoreactive protein with a molecular mass approximately 66 kDa similar to the molecular mass of the mammalian enzyme. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that a FAAH similar to the mammalian enzyme is present in a unicellular eukaryote, indicating the importance of FAAH activity throughout evolution. It also supports the notion that Tetrahymena species may be a suitable model for metabolic studies on endocannabinoids, as well as for the study of drugs targeted towards FAAH.

Amidohydrolases↗
PubMed2005

Partial QSAR analysis of some selected natural inhibitors of FAAH suggests a working hypothesis for the development of endocannabinoid-based drugs.

The endogenous cannabinoids (endocannabinoids) are bioactive signaling molecules, that show diverse cellular and physiological effects and play various roles in the central nervous system, as well as in the periphery. The discovery of N-arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide, AEA) and of the enzyme that terminates its signaling, i. e. fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), has inspired pharmacological strategies to augment endocannabinoid tone and biological activity through inhibition of FAAH. Here we discuss the role of natural endocannabinoid derivatives, like the hydroxy-anandamides (OH-AEAs) generated from AEA via lipoxygenase activity, as powerful inhibitors of FAAH. We propose that these compounds, by reversibly inhibiting FAAH, may control in vivo the endocannabinoid tone. We consider the theoretical structural properties of OH-AEAs and other natural inhibitors of FAAH, based on the calculation of theoretical molecular descriptors commonly used in Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) studies. The QSAR properties of OH-AEAs and congeners suggest that they could act at different specific sites of FAAH, thus confirming their potential value as templates for the development of next-generation therapeutics.

Amidohydrolases↗
PubMed2004

The peripheral cannabinoid receptor Cb2, frequently expressed on AML blasts, either induces a neutrophilic differentiation block or confers abnormal migration properties in a ligand-dependent manner.

Cb2, the gene encoding the peripheral cannabinoid receptor, is located in a common virus integration site and is overex-pressed in retrovirally induced murine myeloid leukemias. Here we show that this G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) is also aberrantly expressed in a high percentage of human acute myeloid leukemias. We investigated the mechanism of transformation by Cb2 and demonstrate that aberrant expression of this receptor on hematopoietic precursor cells results in distinct effects depending on the ligand used. Cb2-expressing myeloid precursors migrate upon stimulation by the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol and are blocked in neutrophilic differentiation upon exposure to another ligand, CP55940. Both effects depend on the activation of G(alphai) proteins and require the mitogen-induced extracellular kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (MEK/ERK) pathway. Down-regulation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels upon G(alphai) activation is important for migration induction but is irrelevant for the maturation arrest. Moreover, the highly conserved G protein-interacting DRY motif, present in the second intracellular loop of GPCRs, is critical for migration but unimportant for the differentiation block. This suggests that the Cb2-mediated differentiation block requires interaction of G(alphai) proteins with other currently unknown motifs. This indicates a unique mechanism by which a transforming GPCR, in a ligand-dependent manner, causes 2 distinct oncogenic effects: altered migration and block of neutrophilic development.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed2004

A critical interaction between dopamine D2 receptors and endocannabinoids mediates the effects of cocaine on striatal gabaergic Transmission.

Compelling evidence indicates that endocannabinoids are implicated in drug addiction. In the present study, we have addressed the interaction between cocaine and endocannabinoid system by means of neurochemical and neurophysiological experiments in rat brain slices. Using gas chromatography-electron impact mass spectrometry, we have found that cocaine increased the levels of the endocannabinoid anandamide in the striatum, a brain area primarily involved in the compulsive drug-seeking and drug-taking behaviors typical of addiction. This effect was attenuated by pharmacological inhibition of D2-like receptors but not D1-like receptors, and it was mimicked by D2-like but not D1-like receptor stimulation. The cocaine-induced increase in anandamide concentrations was attributable to both stimulation of its synthesis and inhibition of its degradation, as suggested by the ability of cocaine and quinpirole, a D2-like receptor agonist, to enhance the activity of NAPE-phospholipase D and to inhibit fatty acid amide hydrolase. By means of electrophysiological recordings from single striatal neurons, we have then observed that the ability of cocaine to inhibit, via D2-like receptors, GABA transmission was partially prevented following blockade of cannabinoid receptors, suggesting that endocannabinoids may act as downstream effectors in the action of cocaine in the striatum. Understanding the molecular and physiological effects of drugs of abuse in the brain is essential for the development of effective strategies against addiction.

2,3,4,5-Tetrahydro-7,8-dihydroxy-1-phenyl-1H-3-ben↗
PubMed2004

Differential regulation of fatty acid amide hydrolase promoter in human immune cells and neuronal cells by leptin and progesterone.

We have shown recently that in human T lymphocytes, leptin stimulates activity and expression of the endocannabinoid-degrading enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), through STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) and its CRE (cAMP response element)-like transcriptional target in the FAAH promoter [Maccarrone, M., Di Rienzo, M., Finazzi-Agro, A., & Rossi, A. (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278, 13318-13324]. We have also shown that progesterone, alone or additively with leptin, up-regulates the FAAH gene in human T-cells, through the Ikaros transcription factor [Maccarrone, M., Bari, M., Di Rienzo, M., Finazzi-Agro, A., & Rossi, A. (2003) J. Biol. Chem. 278, 32726-32732]. Here, we extend these observations to immortalized human lymphoma U937 cells, where stimulation of FAAH by leptin (up to approximately 300% of the controls) involves binding to a leptin receptor (Kd = 2.0 +/- 0.1 nm, Bmax = 382 +/- 5 fmol.mg protein(-1), apparent molecular mass of approximately 110 kDa), and stimulation by progesterone involves an intracellular receptor of approximately 120 kDa. Unlike FAAH, the other proteins of the endocannabinoid system are not modulated by the two hormones. Interestingly, human neuroblastoma CHP100 cells also have a leptin receptor (approximately 110 kDa, Kd = 2.2 +/- 0.2 nm, Bmax = 339 +/- 8 fmol.mg protein(-1)), a progesterone receptor (approximately 120 kDa), STAT3 and Ikaros, yet their FAAH is not activated by leptin or progesterone. These data, corroborated by transient expression and electrophoretic mobility-shift assays, demonstrate an unprecedented cell-specific regulation of the FAAH gene, which has important implications for the control of tone and activity of AEA along the neuroimmune axis.

Amidohydrolases↗
PubMed2004

Enhanced anandamide degradation is associated with neuronal apoptosis induced by the HIV-1 coat glycoprotein gp120 in the rat neocortex.

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 coat glycoprotein gp120 causes delayed apoptosis in rat brain neocortex. Here, we investigated the possible role of the endocannabinoid system in this process. It is shown that gp120 causes a time-dependent increase in the activity and immunoreactivity of the anandamide (AEA)-hydrolyzing enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), paralleled by increased activity of the AEA membrane transporter and decreased endogenous levels of AEA. The AEA-synthesizing phospholipase D and the AEA-binding receptors were not affected by gp120. None of the changes induced by gp120 in the cortex were induced by bovine serum albumin, nor were they observed in the hippocampus of the same animals. Also, the activity of 5-lipoxygenase, which generates AEA derivatives able to inhibit FAAH, decreased down to approximately 25% of the control activity upon gp120 treatment, due to reduced protein level ( approximately 45%). In addition, the FAAH inhibitor methyl-arachidonoyl fluorophosphonate significantly reduced gp120-induced apoptosis in rat brain neocortex, whereas selective blockers of AEA membrane transporter or of AEA-binding receptors were ineffective. Taken together, these results suggest that gp120, by activating FAAH, decreases endogenous levels of AEA, and the latter effect seems instrumental in the execution of delayed neuronal apoptosis in the brain neocortex of rats.

Amidohydrolases↗
PubMed2004

Endocannabinoids and their involvement in the neurovascular system.

Endocannabinoids are a new class of lipids, which include amides, esters and ethers of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. Anandamide (N-arachidonoylethanolamine; AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol are the main endogenous agonists of cannabinoid receptors, able to mimic several pharmacological effects of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol, the active principle of Cannabis sativa preparations like hashish and marijuana. It is known that the activity of AEA is limited by cellular uptake through a specific membrane transporter, followed by intracellular degradation by a fatty acid amide hydrolase. Together with AEA and congeners these proteins form the "endocannabinoid system". The endogenous cannabinoids were identified in brain, and also in neuronal and endothelial cells, suggesting a potential role as modulators in the central nervous system and in the periphery. This review summarises the metabolic routes for the synthesis and degradation of AEA, and the latest advances in the involvement of this lipid in neurovascular biology. In addition, the therapeutic potential of the modulation of endocannabinoid metabolism for neuronal and vascular system will be also reviewed.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

The endocannabinoid system in human keratinocytes. Evidence that anandamide inhibits epidermal differentiation through CB1 receptor-dependent inhibition of protein kinase C, activation protein-1, and transglutaminase.

Anandamide (AEA), a prominent member of the endogenous ligands of cannabinoid receptors (endocannabinoids), is known to affect several functions of brain and peripheral tissues. A potential role for AEA in skin pathophysiology has been proposed, yet its molecular basis remains unknown. Here we report unprecedented evidence that spontaneously immortalized human keratinocytes (HaCaT) and normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK) have the biochemical machinery to bind and metabolize AEA, i.e. a functional type-1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1R), a selective AEA membrane transporter (AMT), an AEA-degrading fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), and an AEA-synthesizing phospholipase D (PLD). We show that, unlike CB1R and PLD, the activity of AMT and the activity and expression of FAAH increase while the endogenous levels of AEA decrease in HaCaT and NHEK cells induced to differentiate in vitro by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) plus calcium. We also show that exogenous AEA inhibits the formation of cornified envelopes, a hallmark of keratinocyte differentiation, in HaCaT and NHEK cells treated with TPA plus calcium, through a CB1R-dependent reduction of transglutaminase and protein kinase C activity. Moreover, transient expression in HaCaT cells of the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene under control of the loricrin promoter, which contained a wild-type or mutated activating protein-1 (AP-1) site, showed that AEA inhibited AP-1 in a CB1R-dependent manner. Taken together, these data demonstrate that human keratinocytes partake in the peripheral endocannabinoid system and show a novel signaling mechanism of CB1 receptors, which may have important implications in epidermal differentiation and skin development.

Arachidonic Acids↗
PubMed2003

Progesterone activates fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) promoter in human T lymphocytes through the transcription factor Ikaros. Evidence for a synergistic effect of leptin.

Physiological concentrations of progesterone stimulate the activity of the endocannabinoid-degrading enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) in human T lymphocytes, up to a approximately 270% over the untreated controls. Stimulation of FAAH occurred through up-regulation of gene expression at transcriptional and translational level and was specific. Indeed, neither the activity of the anandamide-synthesizing N-acyltransferase and phospholipase D, nor the activity of the anandamide transporter, nor the binding to cannabinoid receptors were affected by progesterone under the same experimental conditions. The activation of FAAH by progesterone was paralleled by a decrease (down to 60%) of the cellular levels of anandamide and involved increased nuclear levels of the transcription factor Ikaros. Analysis of the FAAH promoter showed an Ikaros binding site, and mutation of this site prevented FAAH activation by progesterone in transient expression assays. Electrophoretic mobility shift and supershift assays further corroborated the promoter activity data. Furthermore, the effect of progesterone on FAAH promoter was additive to that of physiological amounts of leptin, which binds to a cAMP response element-like site in the promoter region. Taken together, these results suggest that progesterone and leptin, by up-regulating the FAAH promoter at different sites, enhance FAAH expression, thus tuning the immunomodulatory effects of anandamide. These findings might also have critical implications for human fertility.

Adjuvants, Immunologic↗
PubMed2003

Presynaptic facilitation of glutamatergic synapses to dopaminergic neurons of the rat substantia nigra by endogenous stimulation of vanilloid receptors.

Growing evidence regarding the function of vanilloid receptor-1 (VR1) in the brain suggests potential central roles of this receptor, previously described to occur primarily in peripheral sensory neurons. In the present study, we used electrophysiological and biochemical techniques to investigate the function and the endogenous stimulation of VR1 in dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). The VR1 agonist capsaicin increased the frequency of both TTX-sensitive and -insensitive spontaneous EPSCs (sEPSCs) without affecting their amplitude, suggesting a presynaptic site of action. In contrast, no effect was detected with regard to GABAergic transmission. No increase in sEPSC frequency was observed in the presence of cadmium chloride, while the voltage-dependent calcium channel antagonist omega-conotoxin MVIIC did not prevent capsaicin action. The VR1 antagonists capsazepine and iodoresiniferatoxin (IRTX) blocked the effects of capsaicin. Importantly, IRTX per se reduced sEPSC frequency, suggesting a tonic activity of VR1. The endogenous VR1 agonist anandamide (AEA) produced an IRTX-sensitive increase in the frequency of sEPSCs on dopaminergic neurons that was more pronounced when protein kinase A had been activated. Furthermore, mass spectrometric analyses and binding experiments revealed high levels of endogenous AEA and specific binding of AEA to VR1 receptors in the SNc. These data suggest a tonic facilitation of glutamate release exerted by VR1 in the SNc through a stimulation of VR1 by endovanilloids, including anandamide. The increase in sEPSC frequency by VR1 onto midbrain dopaminergic neurons suggests the involvement of these receptors in motor and cognitive functions involving the dopaminergic system.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Structure-to-function relationship of mini-lipoxygenase, a 60-kDa fragment of soybean lipoxygenase-1 with lower stability but higher enzymatic activity.

Lipoxygenase-1 (Lox-1) is a member of the lipoxygenase family, a class of dioxygenases that take part in the metabolism of polyunsatured fatty acids in eukaryotes. Tryptic digestion of soybean Lox-1 is known to produce a 60 kDa fragment, termed "mini-Lox," which shows enhanced catalytic efficiency and higher membrane-binding ability than the native enzyme (Maccarrone, M., Salucci, M. L., van Zadelhoff, G., Malatesta, F., Veldink, G. Vliegenthart, J. F. G., and Finazzi-Agrò, A. (2001) Biochemistry 40, 6819-6827). In this study, we have investigated the stability of mini-Lox in guanidinium hydrochloride and under high pressure by fluorescence and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Only a partial unfolding could be obtained at high pressure in the range 1-3000 bar at variance with guanidinium hydrochloride. However, in both cases a reversible denaturation was observed. The denaturation experiments demonstrate that mini-Lox is a rather unstable molecule, which undergoes a two-step unfolding transition at moderately low guanidinium hydrochloride concentration (0-4.5 m). Both chemical- and physical-induced denaturation suggest that mini-Lox is more hydrated than Lox-1, an observation also confirmed by 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) binding studies. We have also investigated the occurrence of substrate-induced changes in the protein tertiary structure by dynamic fluorescence techniques. In particular, eicosatetraynoic acid, an irreversible inhibitor of lipoxygenase, has been used to mimic the effect of substrate binding. We demonstrated that mini-Lox is indeed characterized by much larger conformational changes than those occurring in the native Lox-1 upon binding of eicosatetraynoic acid. Finally, by both activity and fluorescence measurements we have found that 1-anilino-8-naphthalenesulfonate has access to the active site of mini-Lox but not to that of intact Lox-1. These findings strongly support the hypothesis that the larger hydration of mini-Lox renders this molecule more flexible, and therefore less stable.

Anilino Naphthalenesulfonates↗
PubMed2003

Leptin activates the anandamide hydrolase promoter in human T lymphocytes through STAT3.

Physiological concentrations of leptin stimulate the activity of the endocannabinoid-degrading enzyme anandamide hydrolase (fatty acid amide hydrolase, FAAH) in human T lymphocytes up to approximately 300% over the untreated controls. Stimulation of FAAH occurred through up-regulation of gene expression at transcriptional and translational levels and involved binding of leptin to its receptor with an apparent dissociation constant (K(d)) of 1.95 +/- 0.14 nm and maximum binding (B(max)) of 392 +/- 8 fmol x mg protein(-1). Leptin binding to the receptor triggered activation of STAT3 but not STAT1 or STAT5 or the mitogen-activated protein kinases p38, p42, and p44. Peripheral lymphocytes of leptin knock-out (ob/ob) mice showed decreased FAAH activity and expression (approximately 25% of the wild-type littermates), which were reversed to control levels by exogenous leptin. Analysis of the FAAH promoter showed a cAMP-response element-like site, which is a transcriptional target of STAT3. Consistently, mutation of this site prevented FAAH activation by leptin in transient expression assays. Electrophoretic mobility shift and supershift assays further corroborated the promoter activity data. Taken together, these results suggest that leptin, by up-regulating the FAAH promoter through STAT3, enhances FAAH expression, thus tuning the immunomodulatory effects of anandamide. These findings might also have critical implications for human fertility.

Acute-Phase Proteins↗