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. 2025 Jul 18:16:1614460.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1614460. eCollection 2025.

Several endocannabinoids and amino acids may be biosynthetically converted to catecholamines in vivo

Paul J Fitzgerald  1
Affiliations

Several endocannabinoids and amino acids may be biosynthetically converted to catecholamines in vivo

Paul J Fitzgerald. Front Pharmacol. .
No abstract available

Keywords: adrenaline; dopamine; epinephrine; liquid chromatography; mass spectrometry; noradrenaline; norepinephrine; stable isotope.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Proposed substrates for catecholamine biosynthesis. (A) Canonical pathway for catecholamine synthesis, described over 70 years ago, in which the amino acid tyrosine (not shown) is transformed to dopamine, and subsequently norepinephrine and epinephrine. (B) It is proposed here that the amino acids alanine, aspartate, and serine participate in additional pathways for synthesizing catecholamines. (C) It is further suggested here that the endocannabinoids anandamide and 2-AG, and lipids such as phosphatidylethanolamine, also participate in novel biosynthesis pathways. The yellow boxes highlight two-carbon moieties, with attached hydroxyl or amine groups, that are proposed to detach and react with currently unidentified benzene-ring containing (i.e., phenylic) molecules to form the side chain of catecholamines.
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