Ceramide kinase-like protein promotes cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

Linked Article: Meyer et al. Br J Dermatol 2021; 185:147-152. Ceramide kinase-like protein (CERKL) was originally described in retinal tissue in the eye. It has been shown to protect cells from oxidative stress, which is a process that kills cells; and mutations (faults) in CERKL cause an inherited disease called retinitis pigmentosa that leads to loss of vision. We set out to investigate CERKL in normal skin and in a type of skin cancer called cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). CERKL levels were low in normal skin but significantly increased in cSCC and also in actinic keratoses (areas of sun-damaged skin that sometimes can develop into skin cancer). Because of their fast metabolism, cancer cells have high levels of oxidative stress. CERKL appears to enable these cSCC cells to survive, because when we inactivated CERKL, the cSCC cells died. In conclusion, these findings suggest that CERKL may be important in disease progression in cSCC. Since CERKL is not expressed in normal skin cells, further investigation of CERKL could lead to novel strategies for prevention and treatment of cSCC.