Simultaneous quantification of endocannabinoids, oleoylethanolamide and steroid hormones in human plasma and saliva

Endogenous cannabinoids are an increasingly intriguing target for biological research, given the changing legal status of medicinal cannabinoid-based products throughout the world. However, studying the endogenous cannabinoid system is a relatively new field, with few research teams attempting to develop quantitative methods for these important modulatory analytes in human matrices, other than blood. Here we develop and validate simultaneous methods for quantifying arachidonoyl-ethanolamide, 2-arachidonoyl glycerol, oleoylethanolamide, cortisol and progesterone in human plasma and saliva using liquid–liquid extraction combined with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. The method was fully validated over the linear concentration range 1–20 ng/mL for each analyte in plasma (R2 = 0.98–0.99) and saliva (R2 = 0.99). We find that salivary endogenous cannabinoids and cortisol are acutely responsive to exercise, suggesting that targeting the saliva system may present a convenient way for future research of endogenous cannabinoids. This finding also encourages a broader understanding of the endogenous cannabinoid system during stress responses, and our method may consequently lead to a better understanding of the role of endogenous cannabinoids in peripheral tissues.