Discovery of deoxyceramide analogs as highly selective ACER3 inhibitors in live cells.

Acid (AC), neutral (NC) and alkaline ceramidase 3 (ACER3) are the most ubiquitous ceramidases and their therapeutic interest as targets in cancer diseases has been well sustained. This supports the importance of discovering potent and specific inhibitors for further use in combination therapies. Although several ceramidase inhibitors have been reported, most of them target AC and a few focus on NC. In contrast, well characterized ACER3 inhibitors are lacking. Here we report on the synthesis and screening of two series of 1-deoxy(dihydro)ceramide analogs on the three enzymes. Activity was determined using fluorogenic substrates in recombinant human NC (rhNC) and both lysates and intact cells enriched in each enzyme. None of the molecules elicited a remarkable AC inhibitory activity in either experimental setup, while using rhNC, several compounds of both series were active as non-competitive inhibitors with Ki values between 1 and 5 µM. However, a dramatic loss of potency occurred in NC-enriched cell lysates and no activity was elicited in intact cells. Interestingly, several compounds of Series 2 inhibited ACER3 dose-dependently in both cell lysates and intact cells with IC50's around 20 µM. In agreement with their activity in live cells, they provoked a significant increase in the amounts of ceramides. Overall, this study identifies highly selective ACER3 activity blockers in intact cells, opening the door to further medicinal chemistry efforts aimed at developing more potent and specific compounds.

Regulation of alkaline ceramidase activity by the c-Src-mediated pathway.

Ceramidase hydrolyzes ceramide to fatty acids and sphingosine, and sphingosine is then converted to sphingosine-1-phosphate. Ceramide and sphingosine-1-phosphate act as signaling molecules. Although stimuli coupling to protein kinases-dependent systems have been shown to regulate ceramidase activity, the exact role of c-Src-mediated signal has not been elucidated. We examined the effects of the downregulation of c-Src activity and c-Src overexpression on ceramidase activity in cells. In A549, CHO, and HeLa cells labeled with a fluorescent ceramide, 4-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3-diazole-labeled C6-ceramide (NBD-ceramide), the downregulation of c-Src by c-Src-shRNA and pharmacological inhibitors including SU6656 decreased levels of NBD-caproic acid. The overexpression of c-Src increased NBD-caproic acid levels in CHO and HeLa cells. Similar results were obtained in Na3VO4-treated cells having higher NBD-caproic acid levels. The downregulation and overexpression of c-Src decreased and increased ceramidase activity, respectively, in the lysates of A549 cells at pH 8.8. The ceramidase sensitivity to substrates, pH, and Ca(2+) suggest that the c-Src- and SU6656-sensitive ceramidase is alkaline ceramidase (ACER), possibly Ca(2+)-activated ACER2. Serum starvation increased both ceramidase activity at pH 8.8 and expression of ACER2. Our data suggest that c-Src-mediated signal positively regulates ACER activity in a Ca(2+)-independent manner.