Fig. 3
From: Deciphering lipid dysregulation in ALS: from mechanisms to translational medicine
Sphingolipid classes, metabolism, and associated diseases. Ceramides are the basic structural unit of sphingolipids, and can be synthesized de novo from palmitoyl coA, L-serine and fatty acyl coA with variable length (shown in blue), or from the breakdown of the more complex sphingolipid classes - glucosylceramides, galactosylceramides, lactosylceramides, gangliosides and sphingomyelin. Sphingosine-1-phosphate is the breakdown product of ceramide and is an active signaling molecule. Genetic variants of many of the key enzymes causing sphingolipid accumulation are causal for various neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases, including ALS and have been specified in the figure