The patient presented with progressive joint deformity, a hoarse voice, subsequent cachexia, and myoclonic seizures. She was first seen aged 22 months and died aged 6 years. A diagnosis of Farber's disease was made by demonstrating a deficiency of acid ceramidase both in leucocytes and fibroblasts.

Dietary fibre and fat affect colonic tumourigenesis and inflammation. Sphingomyelin metabolism may have implications for the pathogenesis of colonic tumours and ulcerative colitis. The present study examined the effects of psyllium and fat on the enzymes responsible for sphingomyelin metabolism and apoptosis in the colon. Mice were fed control, psyllium-containing (100 g/kg), high-fat (313 g/kg...

Transgenic expression of ceramidase suppresses retinal degeneration in Drosophila arrestin and phospholipase C mutants. Here, we show that expression of ceramidase facilitates the dissolution of incompletely formed and inappropriately located elements of rhabdomeric membranes in ninaE(I17) mutants lacking the G protein receptor Rh1 in R1-R6 photoreceptor cells. Ceramidase expression facilitates...

Farber disease caused by acid ceramidase deficiency is characterised by a triad of painful and swollen joints, subcutaneous nodules, and laryngeal involvement. A one year old female with overlapping features of the classical and type 5 variants is reported. Sialuria and elevated plasma chitotriosidase were unusual findings. A novel mutation of the ASAH 1 gene was detected from DNA extracted fro...

A series of structurally related 2,4-dioxopyrimidine-1-carboxamide derivatives as highly potent inhibitors against acid ceramidase were subjected to hologram quantitative structure-activity relationship (HQSAR) analysis. A training set containing 24 compounds served to establish the HQSAR model. The best HQSAR model was generated using atoms, bond, connectivity, donor and acceptor as fragment d...