Integrated profiling of sphingolipid-related genes in breast cancer

Abstract

Abstract Sphingolipids control cell destiny because ceramide induces cell death while sphingosine-1-phosphate enables cell survival. The uncontrolled state of this equilibrium leads to cancer development. The research examined how ceramide treatment affected sphingolipid metabolism in MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. The cells were treated with C6-ceramide, and the quantitative real-time PCR was used to measure UGCG, ASAH1, CERS4 and CERS5 gene expression. The microscopy was used to evaluate morphological changes. MDA-MB-231 cells showed pronounced morphological alterations and strong upregulation of ceramide synthesis genes (CERS4, CERS5) along with increased ASAH1 expression, which demonstrated active ceramide turnover. MCF-7 cells showed less severe morphological changes while their transcriptional response remained weak. The two cell lines showed decreased UGCG expression which indicated reduced ceramide glycosylation and possible ceramide accumulation in their cells. The research results show that breast cancer subtypes respond to ceramide in different ways because aggressive cancer cells develop more metabolic flexibility. Sphingolipid metabolism represents a potential target for developing breast cancer treatment approaches.