Lipids and membranes are often strongly altered in various diseases and pathologies, but are not often targeted for therapeutic advantage. In particular, the sphingolipids are particularly sensitive to altered physiology and have been implicated as important players in not only several rare hereditary diseases, but also other major pathologies, including cancer. This review discusses some potential targets in the sphingolipid pathway and describes how the initial drug compounds have been evolved to create potentially improved therapeutics. This reveals how lipids and their interactions with proteins can be used for therapeutic advantage. We also discuss the possibility that modification of the physical properties of membranes could also affect intracellular signaling and be of therapeutic interest.

中文翻译：

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鞘脂和膜靶用于治疗。

脂质和膜在各种疾病和病理中通常会发生很大变化，但通常不具有治疗优势。特别地，鞘脂对改变的生理特别敏感，并且不仅与几种罕见的遗传性疾病有关，而且与包括癌症在内的其他主要病理学也有重要关系。这篇综述讨论了鞘脂途径中的一些潜在靶标，并描述了最初的药物化合物是如何被演化为可潜在改善治疗效果的。这揭示了脂质及其与蛋白质的相互作用如何可用于治疗。我们还讨论了膜物理性质的修饰也可能影响细胞内信号传导并具有治疗意义的可能性。