Ceramide analogues in apoptosis: a new strategy for anticancer drug development.

A survey on the role played by ceramide within the sphingolmyelin pathway is here reported, taking into account its importance as an intracellular effector molecule in apoptosis. Recently, several analogs of ceramide, able to pass the cell membrane and then to induce apoptosis, have been developed as a new potential approach in anticancer therapy. Copyright 2003 Editions scienctifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS