| 研究実績の概要 |
Sphingolipids are important cell components for the formation of membrane lipid bilayers as well as for cell growth, apoptosis and inflammation. Using a selective high-throughput microscopy-based screening, we recently isolated natural compounds, Limonoids as new inhibitor type of the biosynthesis of sphingomyelin, the major sphingolipid in eukaryotic membranes. In order to precise their therapeutic properties, we set up the experimental conditions to analyze their effects on various sphingolipid-dependent events: 1) modulation of sphingolipid content by limonoid Gedunin pretreatment improved the efficiency of some anticancer drugs (doxorubicin but not Paclitaxel) in HeLa cells; 2) sphingolipid-dependent growth of Plasmodium malaria parasite in erythrocytes and Toxoplasma parasite in HeLa cells was decreased by limonoid Gedunin pretreatment of the cells but had a toxic effect by itself; 3) since Limonoids favored the formation of ceramide-rich domains in the membrane, we tried to analyse the ceramide transbilayer movement in vitro in unilamellar vesicles with new type of sulhydryl analogs of ceramides; 4) the membrane distribution of sphingomyelin is important to control various events as diacylglycerol transbilayer movement .
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