Description
Product Characteristics:
Converts sphingomyelin to ceramide. Also has phospholipase C activities toward 1,2-diacylglycerolphosphocholine and 1,2-diacylglycerolphosphoglycerol. Isoform 2 and isoform 3 have lost catalytic activity.Involvement in disease: Defects in SMPD1 are the cause of Niemann-Pick disease type A (NPDA), also known as Niemann-Pick disease classical infantile form. It is an early-onset lysosomal storage disorder caused by failure to hydrolyze sphingomyelin to ceramide. It results in the accumulation of sphingomyelin and other metabolically related lipids in reticuloendothelial and other cell types throughout the body, leading to cell death. Niemann-Pick disease type A is a primarily neurodegenerative disorder characterized by onset within the first year of life, mental retardation, digestive disorders, failure to thrive, major hepatosplenomegaly, and severe neurologic symptoms. The severe neurological disorders and pulmonary infections lead to an early death, often around the age of four. Clinical features are variable. A phenotypic continuum exists between type A (basic neurovisceral) and type B (purely visceral) forms of Niemann-Pick disease, and the intermediate types encompass a cluster of variants combining clinical features of both types A and B.
Subcellular location: Cytoplasm
Synonyms: Acid sphingomyelinase, ASM, ASM_HUMAN, aSMase, NPD, Smpd1, Sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase 1 acid lysosomal, Sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase.
Target Information: The protein encoded by this gene is a lysosomal acid sphingomyelinase that converts sphingomyelin to ceramide. The encoded protein also has phospholipase C activity. Defects in this gene are a cause of Niemann-Pick disease type A (NPA) and Niemann-Pick disease type B (NPB). Multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been identified. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2010]