Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland.
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2010 Apr;20(4):245-52. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2009.12.008. Epub 2010 Feb 1.
The endogenous cannabinoid (EC) system has been recently implicated in several neuropsychiatric disorders. This study analyzed post-mortem brain regions of Cloninger type 1 (n=9) and 2 (n=8) alcoholics and non-alcoholic controls (n=10) for ECs by quantitative liquid chromatography with triple quadrupole mass spectrometric detection. A significant difference was found in anandamide (AEA) levels in nucleus accumbens (NAcc) between the three groups (p=0.047). AEA levels were significantly lower when compared to controls in both perigenual anterior cingulate (p=0.017) and frontal cortices (p=0.018) of type 1 alcoholics. Similar trends were observed for dihomo-gamma-linolenoyl ethanolamide and docosahexaenoyl ethanolamide, but not for 2-arachidonoylglycerol, palmitoyl ethanolamide, or oleoyl ethanolamide. Although preliminary, and from diagnostic groups with a relatively small number of subjects and substantially different mean ages for each group, these results suggest that the EC system may be hyperactive in type 2 alcoholics and hypoactive in type 1 alcoholics.
内源性大麻素（EC）系统最近被牵涉到多种神经精神疾病中。本研究通过定量液相色谱-三重四极杆质谱检测分析了 Cloninger 1 型（n=9）和 2 型（n=8）酗酒者以及非酗酒对照者（n=10）的死后脑区 EC。在三个组之间发现了伏隔核（NAcc）中花生四烯酸乙醇酰胺（AEA）水平的显著差异（p=0.047）。1 型酗酒者的前扣带回皮质（p=0.017）和额叶皮质（p=0.018）中，AEA 水平与对照组相比明显降低。对于二高-γ-亚麻酰基乙醇酰胺和二十二碳六烯酰基乙醇酰胺也观察到类似的趋势，但 2-花生四烯酸甘油和棕榈酰乙醇酰胺或油酰乙醇酰胺则不然。尽管这些结果初步且来自诊断组，每个组的受试者数量相对较少，平均年龄也有很大差异，但这些结果表明 EC 系统在 2 型酗酒者中可能过度活跃，而在 1 型酗酒者中则可能不活跃。
