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Journal ArticleDOI

Ceramide-orchestrated signalling in cancer cells

Samy A.F. Morad, +1 more
- 01 Jan 2013 - 
- Vol. 13, Iss: 1, pp 51-65
TLDR
This Review focuses on ceramide signalling and the targeting of specific metabolic junctures to amplify the tumour suppressive activities of ceramide.
Abstract
One crucial barrier to progress in the treatment of cancer has been the inability to control the balance between cell proliferation and apoptosis: enter ceramide. Discoveries over the past 15 years have elevated this sphingolipid to the lofty position of a regulator of cell fate. Ceramide, it turns out, is a powerful tumour suppressor, potentiating signalling events that drive apoptosis, autophagic responses and cell cycle arrest. However, defects in ceramide generation and metabolism in cancer cells contribute to tumour cell survival and resistance to chemotherapy. This Review focuses on ceramide signalling and the targeting of specific metabolic junctures to amplify the tumour suppressive activities of ceramide. The potential of ceramide-based therapeutics in the treatment of cancer is also discussed.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Sphingolipids and their metabolism in physiology and disease.

TL;DR: These results highlight critical roles for bioactive sphingolipids in most, if not all, major cell biological responses, including all major cell signalling pathways, and they link sphingoipid metabolism to key human diseases.
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Emergence of neural encoding of auditory objects while listening to competing speakers

TL;DR: Recording from subjects selectively listening to one of two competing speakers using magnetoencephalography indicates that concurrent auditory objects, even if spectrotemporally overlapping and not resolvable at the auditory periphery, are neurally encoded individually in auditory cortex and emerge as fundamental representational units for top-down attentional modulation and bottom-up neural adaptation.
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mTOR signalling and cellular metabolism are mutual determinants in cancer.

TL;DR: The interdependencies of mTOR signalling and metabolism pathways in cancer and how metabolic reprogramming in response to changes in m TOR signalling and vice versa can sustain tumorigenicity are discussed.
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Hooked on fat: the role of lipid synthesis in cancer metabolism and tumour development

TL;DR: The role of aberrant lipid biosynthesis in cancer cell migration and invasion, and in the induction of tumour angiogenesis, is explored.
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Early olfactory processing in Drosophila: mechanisms and principles.

TL;DR: This review summarizes the neurophysiology of the first two layers of this system: the peripheral olfactory receptor neurons and their postsynaptic targets in the antennal lobe and suggests some general principles with broad relevance to early sensory processing in other modalities.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Nitric oxide inhibits tumor necrosis factor-α-induced apoptosis by reducing the generation of ceramide

TL;DR: A mechanism of regulation of a signal-transduction pathway activated by death receptors is identified, and ceramide potentiated, whereas NO inhibited, TNF-alpha-induced TRADD recruitment and caspase 8 activity.
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Gamma-tocotrienol induces apoptosis and autophagy in prostate cancer cells by increasing intracellular dihydrosphingosine and dihydroceramide

TL;DR: It was shown that γTE treatment promoted apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy in human prostate PC‐3 and LNCaP cancer cells and support the notion that elevation of intracellular diHydroceramide and dihydrosphingosine is likely a novel anticancer mechanism.
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Identification and Characterization of Murine Mitochondria-associated Neutral Sphingomyelinase (MA-nSMase), the Mammalian Sphingomyelin Phosphodiesterase 5

TL;DR: The identified cDNA encodes a novel protein of 483 amino acids that displays significant homology to nSMase2 and possesses the same catalytic core residues as members of the extended N-SMase family and will contribute to the understanding of pathways regulated by sphingolipid metabolites, particularly with reference to the mitochondria and associated organelles.
Journal ArticleDOI

Ceramide is the key mediator of oxidative stress‐induced apoptosis in retinal photoreceptor cells

TL;DR: The findings show that ceramide controls the cell death decisions in photoreceptor cells and highlight the relevance of acid sphingomyelinase as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of retinal pathologies.
Journal ArticleDOI

Addition of a histone deacetylase inhibitor redirects tamoxifen-treated breast cancer cells into apoptosis, which is opposed by the induction of autophagy

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the addition of an HDAC inhibitor redirects the response of ER-positive breast cancer cells when treated with tamoxifen from growth arrest to apoptotic cell death, which may impair development of tamoxIFen resistance.
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