Targeted lipidomics: discovery of new fatty acyl amides.

The discovery of endogenous fatty acyl amides such as N-arachidonoyl ethanolamide (anandamide), N-oleoyl ethanolamide (OEA), and N-arachidonoyl dopamine (NADA) as important signaling molecules in the central and peripheral nervous system has led us to pursue other unidentified signaling molecules. Until recently, technical challenges, particularly those associated with lipid purification and chemical analysis, have hindered the identification of low abundance signaling lipids. Improvements in chromatography and mass spectrometry (MS) such as miniaturization of high-performance liquid chromatography components, hybridization of multistage mass spectrometers and time-of-flight technology, the development of electrospray ionization (ESI) and of information-dependent acquisition, now permit rapid identification of novel, low abundance, signaling lipids.