Abstract
Ceramide is a core molecule of sphingolipid metabolism that causes selective insulin resistance and dyslipidemia. Research on its involvement in cardiovascular diseases has grown rapidly. In resting cells, ceramide levels are extremely low, while they rapidly accumulate upon encountering external stimuli. Recently, the regulation of ceramide levels under pathological conditions, including myocardial infarction, hypertension, and atherosclerosis, has drawn great attention. Increased ceramide levels are strongly associated with adverse cardiovascular risks and events while inhibiting the synthesis of ceramide or accelerating its degradation improves a variety of cardiovascular diseases. In this article, we summarize the role of ceramide in cardiovascular disease, investigate the possible application of ceramide as a new diagnostic biomarker and a therapeutic target for cardiovascular disorders, and highlight the remaining problems.
Highlights
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) impose a heavy economic and health burden worldwide [1,2,3]
We summarize the biochemical process of ceramide and its role in CVD to investigate the possible uses of ceramide as a new diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for cardiovascular disorders
There is an urgent need to identify more effective molecular targets. It took more than 100 years to identify sphingomyelin in 1884 to confirm the close connection between ceramide and atherosclerotic plaque formation in 2005
Summary
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) impose a heavy economic and health burden worldwide [1,2,3]. In 1993, Obeid et al demonstrated that tumor necrosis factor activates sphingomyelinase, thereby acutely releasing ceramide This finding inspired researchers to investigate the role of ceramide as an intracellular messenger. The above two pioneering findings prompted researchers to focus on the role of ceramide in metabolic diseases It was not until 2005 that a link between ceramide and CVD was ascertained by the report that the inhibition of de novo ceramide biosynthesis in ApoE-KO mice prevented the development of atherosclerotic lesions that underlie various CVDs [17]. Serum and tissue ceramides have been confirmed to be closely related to insulin resistance, diabetes, CVD incidence, secondary CVD events, secondary CVD mortality, and coronary artery disease, and the development of mass spectrometry and lipidomics technology has allowed researchers to comprehensively evaluate the accumulation of sphingolipids in serum and tissues [23, 24]. We highlight the remaining problems and perspectives for future research
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