REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Neuroendocrine Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1602149
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances of lipid metabolism in neurological diseases and mental disordersView all 7 articles
Fasting the mitochondria to prevent neurodegeneration: The role of ceramides
Provisionally accepted
Alberto Camacho-Morales1*
Luis A Valenzuela-Ahumada11
RUBI VIVEROS2
Octavio F Mercado-Gómez3
ROSALINDA Guevara-Guzmán3- 1Autonomous University of Nuevo León, San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico
- 2Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
- 3National Autonomous University of Mexico, México City, México, Mexico
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Neurodegenerative diseases affect up to 349.2 million individuals worldwide.Preclinical and clinical advances have documented that altered energy homeostasis and mitochondria dysfunction is a hallmark of neurological disorders. Diet-derived ceramides species might target and disrupt mitochondria function leading to defective energy balance and neurodegeneration. Ceramides as bioactive lipid species affect mitochondria function by several mechanism including changes in membrane chemical composition, inhibition of the respiratory chain, ROS overproduction and oxidative stress, and also by activating mitophagy. Promising avenues of intervention has documented that intermittent fasting (IF) is able to benefit and set proper energy metabolism. IF is an eating protocol that involves alternating periods of fasting with periods of eating which modulate ceramide metabolism and mitochondria function in neurons. This review will address the detrimental effect of ceramides on mitochondria membrane composition, respiratory chain, ROS dynamics and mitophagy in brain contributing to neurodegeneration. We will focus on effect of IF on ceramide metabolism as a potential avenue to improve mitochondria function and prevention of neurodegeneration.
Keywords: neurodegeneration, Microglia, intermittent fasting, Ceramides, mitophagy
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Camacho-Morales, Valenzuela-Ahumada1, VIVEROS, Mercado-Gómez and Guevara-Guzmán. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Alberto Camacho-Morales, Autonomous University of Nuevo León, San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico
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