Adding Lyso-Lipids to Arachidonate Metabolism Sets the Stage for New Biology.

Prostaglandins have been characterized as the metabolic products of arachidonic acid released from glycerophospholipids following hydrolysis by phospholipase A2s and enzymatic oxidation by the COX1 and COX2. In this issue of Cell Chemical Biology, Liu et al. (2016) examine the metabolism of 2-arachidonoyl-lyso-phosphatidylcholine and 2-arachidonoyl-lyso-phosphatidylethanolamine by COX2 and conversion to glycerolipid linked prostanoids, raising a series of interesting and important questions.