Fatty acid acylation of dopamine in the carotid body

In this article, we put forward a hypothesis concerning the assembling and storage of dopamine molecules in the dense-core vesicles of the carotid body chemoreceptor cell. We posit that dopamine molecules are packed and sustained in the vesicular form due to the formation of N-acyldopamine, a condensation product of fatty acid acyl chain and dopamine at the amino group of the latter. N-acyldopamine would then be stored in a micelle-like supramolecular structure formed due to self-association through the hydrophilic dopamine headgroups. This hypothesis may help explain the perennial problem of the role of dopamine in chemoception. It also draws attention to the possibility of the existence of neurotransmitters in the N-acylated form. This could lead to the design of acylated compounds that would play a role of prodrugs slow-releasing active substances by hydrolysis into the desired environment.