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Ceramides and Ceramide Kinase

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Biochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2025 | Viewed by 923

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the Basque Country, P.O. Box 644, 48080 Bilbao, Spain
Interests: adipogenesis; cancer; cell proliferation; cell death; cell migration; ceramides; ceramide kinase; ceramide 1-phosphate; cell signaling; inflammation; sphingolipids

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The aim of this Special Issue on ceramides and ceramide kinase is to provide readers with the most up-to-date knowledge on the regulation of cell signaling and metabolism by ceramides and ceramide 1-phosphate (C1P). Special attention will be paid to studies related to the implication of ceramides and C1P in diseases and how targeting these two major bioactive sphingolipids, or the enzymes responsible for their synthesis and degradation, may serve to reduce or overcome metabolic dysregulation. Ceramides and C1P are involved in a great variety of illnesses, including low-grade inflammation associated with obesity and insulin resistance, chronic inflammatory diseases, neurological diseases, and cancer cell growth and dissemination, among others. The most recent therapeutic approaches to treat these pathologies are highlighted and discussed in this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Gomez-Muñoz
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • cancer
  • cell survival
  • ceramides
  • ceramide 1-phosphate
  • inflammation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 2768 KiB  
Article
Glucosylceramide Synthase, a Key Enzyme in Sphingolipid Metabolism, Regulates Expression of Genes Accounting for Cancer Drug Resistance
by Md Saqline Mostaq, Lin Kang, Gauri A. Patwardhan, Yunfeng Zhao, Runhua Shi and Yong-Yu Liu
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(11), 5112; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26115112 - 26 May 2025
Viewed by 676
Abstract
Emergent cancer drug resistance and further metastasis can mainly be attributed to altered expression levels and functional activities of multiple genes of cancer cells under chemotherapy. In response to challenge with anticancer drugs, enhanced ceramide glycosylation catalyzed by glucosylceramide synthase (GCS) confers drug [...] Read more.
Emergent cancer drug resistance and further metastasis can mainly be attributed to altered expression levels and functional activities of multiple genes of cancer cells under chemotherapy. In response to challenge with anticancer drugs, enhanced ceramide glycosylation catalyzed by glucosylceramide synthase (GCS) confers drug resistance and enrichment with cancer stem cells. p53 mutations, which gain function in tumor progression, are prevalently extant in ovarian cancers. Via integrated gene expression assessments, we characterized GCS-responsive genes in ovarian cancer cells treated with dactinomycin. NCI/ADR-RES cells dominantly expressed a p53 mutant (7 aa deleted in exon-5) and displayed anti-apoptosis; however, silencing GCS expression rendered these cells sensitive to dactinomycin-induced apoptosis. Microarray analyses of NCI/ADR-RES and its GCS transfected sublines found that elevated GCS expression or ceramide glycosylation was associated with altered expression of 41 genes, notably coding for ABCB1, FGF2, ALDH1A3, apolipoprotein E, laminin 2, chemokine ligands, and IL6, with cellular resistance to induced apoptosis and enrichment with cancer stem cells, promoting cancer progression. These findings were further corroborated through integrated genomic analyses of ovarian cancer from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and cancer resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy. Altogether, our present study indicates that altered ceramide glycosylation can modulate expression of these GCS-responsive genes and alter cancer cell attributes under chemotherapy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ceramides and Ceramide Kinase)
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