Abstract
As viruses are obligatory intracellular parasites, any step during their life cycle strictly depends on successful interaction with their particular host cells. In particular, their interaction with cellular membranes is of crucial importance for most steps in the viral replication cycle. Such interactions are initiated by uptake of viral particles and subsequent trafficking to intracellular compartments to access their replication compartments which provide a spatially confined environment concentrating viral and cellular components, and subsequently, employ cellular membranes for assembly and exit of viral progeny. The ability of viruses to actively modulate lipid composition such as sphingolipids (SLs) is essential for successful completion of the viral life cycle. In addition to their structural and biophysical properties of cellular membranes, some sphingolipid (SL) species are bioactive and as such, take part in cellular signaling processes involved in regulating viral replication. It is especially due to the progress made in tools to study accumulation and dynamics of SLs, which visualize their compartmentalization and identify interaction partners at a cellular level, as well as the availability of genetic knockout systems, that the role of particular SL species in the viral replication process can be analyzed and, most importantly, be explored as targets for therapeutic intervention.
Highlights
Sphingolipids (SLs) are highly abundant components of cellular membranes and as such, are essentially involved in their biophysical and signaling properties
Rather than discussing that process in bacterial infections, this review focuses on the role of sphingolipid metabolites in viral infections
There the breakdown of SM to Cer takes place by sphingomyelinase (SMase), degradation of GSL occurs by are transported from the Golgi apparatus to the plasma membrane or lysosomes
Summary
Sphingolipids (SLs) are highly abundant components of cellular membranes and as such, are essentially involved in their biophysical and signaling properties. Depending on the length of their fatty acid chains and their degree of saturation, SL species have a strong impact on biophysical membrane parameters such as fluidity or rigidity and curvature, and on interaction with membrane proteins and/or cytoskeletal components, and membrane compartmentalization This coins their ability to promote the formation and activity of signaling platforms in a dynamic and spatiotemporally regulated manner [4,5,6,7]. Mass spectrometry imaging, albeit less quantitative and less specific, provides information of spatial SL distribution in tissues These techniques are being exploited in the context of general SL biosynthesis and turnover, which, due to its central role in cell physiology, directly translates into regulation of cellular processes, and has been targeted for therapeutic intervention as referred to above. The importance of the SLs in governing essential steps in virus–host cell interaction is described
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