Specific forms of the lipid ceramide, synthesized by the ceramide synthase enzyme family, are believed to regulate metabolic physiology. Genetic mouse models have established C16 ceramide as a driver of insulin resistance in liver and adipose tissue. C18 ceramide, synthesized by ceramide synthase 1 (CerS1), is abundant in skeletal muscle and suggested to promote insulin resistance in humans. We herein describe the first isoform-specific ceramide synthase inhibitor, P053, which inhibits CerS1 with nanomolar potency. Lipidomic profiling shows that P053 is highly selective for CerS1. Daily P053 administration to mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) increases fatty acid oxidation in skeletal muscle and impedes increases in muscle triglycerides and adiposity, but does not protect against HFD-induced insulin resistance. Our inhibitor therefore allowed us to define a role for CerS1 as an endogenous inhibitor of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation in muscle and regulator of whole-body adiposity. Ceramides are signalling molecules that regulate several physiological functions including insulin sensitivity. Here the authors report a selective ceramide synthase 1 inhibitor that counteracts lipid accumulation within the muscle and adiposity by increasing fatty acid oxidation but without affecting insulin sensitivity in mice fed with an obesogenic diet.
A selective inhibitor of ceramide synthase 1 reveals a novel role in fat metabolism
N. Turner,X. Y. Lim,H. Toop,B. Osborne,A. Brandon,Elysha N. Taylor,Corrine E. Fiveash,H. Govindaraju,Jonathan D Teo,Holly P. McEwen,Timothy A. Couttas,Stephen M Butler,Abhirup Das,Greg M. Kowalski,C. Bruce,Kyle L. Hoehn,T. Fath,C. Schmitz‐Peiffer,G. Cooney,M. Montgomery,Jonathan C. Morris,A. Don
Published 2018 in Nature Communications
ABSTRACT
PUBLICATION RECORD
- Publication year
2018
- Venue
Nature Communications
- Publication date
2018-08-21
- Fields of study
Medicine, Chemistry
- Identifiers
- External record
- Source metadata
Semantic Scholar, PubMed
CITATION MAP
EXTRACTION MAP
CLAIMS
- No claims are published for this paper.
CONCEPTS
- No concepts are published for this paper.
REFERENCES
Showing 1-76 of 76 references · Page 1 of 1