Sphingosin-1-phosphate as a target for cancer therapy

Phospholipids and their derivatives were considered"neutral"in that they were thought either to serve a simple structural role in cell membrane organization or to provide energy for beta oxidation,glycolysis and other metabolic processes.It has only recently been appreciated that many lipids play significant roles as bioactive signaling mediators. Sabbadini in a minireview in Brit J Cancer(2006,95:1131-1135)summarized the role of sphingolipid,a group of signaling molecules with pteiotropic effects,in carcinogenesis.The key dements of the sphingolipid signaling cascade include such bioactive lipid mediators as ceramide(CER),ceramide-1-phosphate(CIP),sphingosine(SPH)and