. 2018 Jun 28;4:72. doi: 10.1038/s41420-018-0075-0

Table 1.

Role of sphingolipid enzymes in haematological malignancies

Enzyme	Malignancy	Role
Acid ceramidase	AML	Increased expression in patient samples. Modulates Mcl-1 expression in a post-translational manner⁴
Ceramide synthase	AML	Suppressed by FLT3 signalling. Mediates cytotoxicity of FLT3 inhibitors by induction of lethal mitophagy³⁹
Glucosylceramide synthase	AML	Overexpressed in chemotherapy resistance cell lines^29,30
	CLL	Upregulated in response to B-cell receptor stimulation⁶⁸
	Lymphoma	Potential role in tumour initiation⁹⁸
	Myeloma	Potential role in tumour initiation⁹⁸
Sphingosine kinase 1	AML	Overexpressed in patient samples. Increases drug resistance to chemotherapy and ceramide inducing strategies^16,18
	ALL	Overexpressed in patient samples⁷⁸
	CML	Overexpressed in Imatinib-resistant cell lines¹⁵. Upregulates Mcl-1 in a BCR-ABL dependent manner⁶⁰. Represses PP2A to promote BCR-ABL stability⁵¹
Sphingosine kinase 2	ALL	Promotes B-ALL disease progression. Inhibits histone deacetylases to promote Myc expression²²
	Myeloma	Upregulated in cell lines and patient samples^5,23

AML acute myeloid leukaemia, B-ALL B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, BCR-ABL Breakpoint cluster region–Abelson murine leukaemia viral oncogene homolog 1, CLL chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, FLT3 FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3, PP2A protein phosphatase 2A