N-Decanoyl p-Nitroaniline

N-Decanoyl p-nitroaniline (DepNA) is one of several nitroaniline fatty acid amides which can be used to measure fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) activity.1 FAAH is a relatively unselective enzyme in that it accepts a variety of amide head groups other than the ethanolamine of its endogenous substrate anandamide (AEA) . It also will hydrolyze fatty acid amides with fewer carbons and fewer double bonds than arachidonate. Exposure of DepNA to FAAH activity results in the release of the yellow colorimetric dye p-nitroaniline (ε=13,500 at 410 nm) . This allows the fast and convenient measurement of FAAH activity using a 96 well plate spectrophotometer.