Metabolite Encyclopedia › Endocannabinoid system
2-AG is the most abundant endocannabinoid in your body. A nerve cell cuts it out of its own membrane the moment it is needed and uses it to tell the cell upstream one thing: ease off.
- Also called2-AG
- Made inNerve cell membranes, on demand
- Built fromArachidonic acid and glycerol
- Signals viaCB1 and CB2 receptors
Three things worth knowing
It is never stored. Most signaling molecules are packed into vesicles and held ready. 2-AG is not. It is cut out of the membrane at the moment of use and broken down shortly after, so the signal exists only while it is needed.
It runs the wrong way down the synapse. Normal neurotransmission goes from the sending cell to the receiving cell. 2-AG goes the other direction. The receiving cell releases it, it drifts back across the gap, and it turns down the cell that was doing the sending. Neuroscientists call this retrograde signaling, and the endocannabinoids are its best known example.
The famous one is not the abundant one. Anandamide got the nickname and the headlines. 2-AG is present in brain tissue at far higher concentrations and does most of the actual work at CB1.
Two endocannabinoids, two separate production lines
Where the raw material comes from
- Eggs
- Chicken
- Beef
- Salmon
- Liver
You do not eat 2-AG. Your cells assemble it from arachidonic acid and glycerol, both of which are already sitting in every cell membrane you have.
Questions people actually ask
Is 2-AG the same thing as CBD?
No. CBD comes from the cannabis plant. 2-AG is made inside your own cells. They are different molecules that happen to interact with the same receptor system.
Does it make you high?
No. 2-AG acts on CB1 the way a brief local message does, built and destroyed within minutes in a specific spot. That is a different thing from a plant compound arriving everywhere at once and staying for hours.
Where in the body is it made?
Everywhere, but the version people study most is made by nerve cells in the brain, right at the synapse where it is used.
Why is it in a mushroom encyclopedia?
It appears in AHARA's metabolomic map of its Reishi and Lion's Mane elixirs, which is how it ended up here.
2-AG is one of more than 2,000 metabolites AHARA mapped across its Reishi and Lion's Mane elixirs. You can browse the rest of what is in the bottle.
Open the Metabolite EncyclopediaReferences
Sugiura T, Kishimoto S, Oka S, Gokoh M. Biochemistry, pharmacology and physiology of 2-arachidonoylglycerol, an endogenous cannabinoid receptor ligand. Prog Lipid Res. 2006;45(5):405-446. doi:10.1016/j.plipres.2006.03.003
Prospero-Garcia O, Amancio-Belmont O, Becerril Melendez AL, et al. Endocannabinoids and sleep. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2016;71:671-679. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.10.005
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