Different studies corroborate a role for ceramide synthases and their downstream products, ceramides, in modulation of apoptosis and autophagy in the context of cancer. These mechanisms of regulation, however, appear to be context dependent in terms of ceramides’ fatty acid chain length, subcellular localization, and the presence or absence of their downstream targets. Our current understanding of the role of ceramide synthases and ceramides in regulation of apoptosis and autophagy could be harnessed to pioneer the development of new treatments to activate or inhibit a single type of ceramide synthase, thereby regulating the apoptosis induction or cross talk of apoptosis and autophagy in cancer cells. Moreover, the apoptotic function of ceramide suggests that ceramide analogues can pave the way for the development of novel cancer treatments. Therefore, in the current review paper we discuss the impact of ceramide synthases and ceramides in regulation of apoptosis and autophagy in context of different types of cancers. We also briefly introduce the latest information on ceramide synthase inhibitors, their application in diseases including cancer therapy, and discuss approaches for drug discovery in the field of ceramide synthase inhibitors. We finally discussed strategies for developing strategies to use lipids and ceramides analysis in biological fluids for developing early biomarkers for cancer.

不同的研究证实了神经酰胺合酶及其下游产物神经酰胺在癌症背景下细胞凋亡和自噬调节中的作用。然而，这些调节机制似乎依赖于神经酰胺的脂肪酸链长度、亚细胞定位以及其下游靶标的存在或不存在。我们目前对神经酰胺合酶和神经酰胺在细胞凋亡和自噬调节中的作用的理解可以用来开拓新疗法的开发，以激活或抑制单一类型的神经酰胺合酶，从而调节细胞凋亡诱导或细胞凋亡和自噬的交互作用在癌细胞中。此外，神经酰胺的细胞凋亡功能表明神经酰胺类似物可以为新型癌症治疗的开发铺平道路。因此，在当前的综述论文中，我们讨论了神经酰胺合酶和神经酰胺在不同类型癌症的细胞凋亡和自噬调节中的影响。我们还简要介绍了神经酰胺合酶抑制剂的最新信息及其在癌症治疗等疾病中的应用，并讨论了神经酰胺合酶抑制剂领域的药物发现方法。最后，我们讨论了开发利用生物体液中的脂质和神经酰胺分析来开发癌症早期生物标志物的策略。