Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33553211›Full record

ReviewFrontiers in medicine2020

Keep Your Friends Close, but Your Enemies Closer: Role of Acid Sphingomyelinase During Infection and Host Response.

Ha-Yeun Chung, Ralf A Claus

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Frontiers in medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
15citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.3field-weighted citation impact, top 21% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Clinical lipidomics in bacterial sepsis: a systematic review of serum and plasma evaluations.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Lifestyles, metabolome and diabetic kidney disease: a cohort study.QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Raman Monitoring ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. You aren't IMMUNE to the ceramides that accumulate in cardiometabolic disease.Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular and cell biology of lipids · 2022
    Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Acid Sphingomyelinase Deficiency: A Clinical and Immunological Perspective.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021
    Review
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Ha-Yeun ChungSection Translational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
Ralf A ClausDepartment for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
Jena University Hospital · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Breakdown of the inert and constitutive membrane building block sphingomyelin to the highly active lipid mediator ceramide by extracellularly active acid sphingomyelinase is tightly regulated during stress response and opens the gate for invading pathogens, triggering the immune response, development of remote organ failure, and tissue repair following severe infection. How do one enzyme and one mediator manage all of these affairs? Under physiological conditions, the enzyme is located in the lysosomes and takes part in the noiseless metabolism of sphingolipids, but following stress the protein is secreted into circulation. When secreted, acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) is able to hydrolyze sphingomyelin present at the outer leaflet of membranes to ceramide. Its generation troubles the biophysical context of cellular membranes resulting in functional assembly and reorganization of proteins and receptors, also embedded in highly conserved response mechanisms. As a consequence of cellular signaling, not only induction of cell death but also proliferation, differentiation, and fibrogenesis are affected. Here, we discuss the current state of the art on both the impact and function of the enzyme during host response and damage control. Also, the potential role of lysosomotropic agents as functional inhibitors of this upstream alarming cascade is highlighted.

Indexed as

ceramide (CER)FIASMAinhibitororgan failure (OF)sepsissphingomyelinase (SMase)

Identifiers

PMID33553211
PMCPMC7859284
OpenAlexW3124594304

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.