JLR Commentaries
The unmasking of the lipid binding face of sphingosine kinase 1
Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a pro-inflammatory lipid and pro-survival signal generated primarily by phosphorylation of sphingosine via sphingosine kinase 1 (SK1). SK1 is an ~43 kDa enzyme with two domains and an active site within a cleft between the two domains (1). Although the role of SK1 in generating S1P and activating downstream targets is fairly well studied, there has been a paucity of information on how SK1 interacts with lipid membranes/cell membranes where it presumably accesses its substrate, sphingosine.In search of a physiological function of lipoprotein(a): causality of elevated Lp(a) levels and reduced incidence of type 2 diabetes
“Shallow (wo)men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong (wo)men believe in cause and effect.”(Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, 1860).AIBP, inflammation, and atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis (AS), a major etiology of cardiovascular disease, is considered to be a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by excessive inflammatory cells, such as macrophages, accumulated in the arterial wall (1). As the main effector cells of the immune/inflammatory system, macrophages engulf lipids and produce various inflammatory factors, thus participating in the progress of AS (1–3). Therefore, it is very important to clarify the mechanisms that regulate macrophage-related inflammatory response for the prevention of AS.
