Perspective: Therapeutic Implications for Sphingolipids in Health and Disease

Long thought to be structural components of cell membranes, sphingolipids (SLs) have emerged as bioactive molecules whose metabolism is tightly regulated. These bioactive lipids and their metabolic enzymes have been implicated in numerous disease states, including lysosomal storage disorders, multiple sclerosis, inflammation, and cancer as well as metabolic syndrome and obesity. In addition, the indications for many of these lipids to potentially serve as biomarkers for disease continue to emerge with increasing metabolomic and lipidomic studies. The implications of these studies have, in turn, led to the examination of SL enzymes and their bioactive lipids as potential therapeutic targets and as markers for therapeutic efficacy. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Many sphingolipids (SLs) and their metabolizing enzymes have been implicated in disease. This perspective highlights the potential for SLs to serve as therapeutic targets and diagnostic markers and discusses the implications for the studies and reviews highlighted in this Special Section on Therapeutic Implications for Sphingolipids in Health and Disease.