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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Cell Dev. Biol.
Sec. Cancer Cell Biology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1466141
This article is part of the Research Topic Latest Advances in Neuroscience at the 9th Croatian Neuroscience Congress View all 11 articles

The Role of Sphingolipid Rheostat in the Adult-Type Diffuse Glioma Pathogenesis

Provisionally accepted
Ivana  Karmelic Ivana Karmelic 1*Mia  Jurilj Sajko Mia Jurilj Sajko 2Tomislav  Sajko Tomislav Sajko 2Krešimir  Rotim Krešimir Rotim 2Dragana  Fabris Dragana Fabris 1*
  • 1 Department of Medical Chemistry, Biochemistry and Clinical Chemistry, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2 Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Center “Sestre milosrdnice”, Zagreb, Croatia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Gliomas are highly aggressive primary brain tumors, with glioblastoma multiforme being the most severe and the most common one. Aberrations in sphingolipid metabolism are a hallmark of glioma cells. The sphingolipid rheostat represents the balance between the pro-apoptotic ceramide and pro-survival sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), and in gliomas it is shifted toward cell survival and proliferation, promoting gliomas' aggressiveness, cellular migration, metastasis, and invasiveness. The sphingolipid rheostat can be altered by targeting enzymes that directly or indirectly affect the ratio of ceramide to S1P, leading to increased ceramide or decreased S1P levels. Targeting the sphingolipid rheostat offers a potential therapeutic pathway for glioma treatment which can be considered through reducing S1P levels or modulating S1P receptors to reduce cell proliferation, as well as through increasing ceramide levels to induce apoptosis in glioma cells. Although the practical translation into clinical therapy is still missing, sphingolipid rheostat targeting in gliomas has been of great research interest in recent years with several interesting achievements in the glioma therapy approach, offering hope for patients suffering from these vicious malignancies.

    Keywords: Diffuse glioma, Glioblastoma, Sphingosine-1-phosphate, Ceramides, Sphingolipid rheostat

    Received: 19 Jul 2024; Accepted: 11 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Karmelic, Jurilj Sajko, Sajko, Rotim and Fabris. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Ivana Karmelic, Department of Medical Chemistry, Biochemistry and Clinical Chemistry, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
    Dragana Fabris, Department of Medical Chemistry, Biochemistry and Clinical Chemistry, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.