Reaction: a sphingomyelin + H2O = an N-acylsphingosine + phosphocholine
Other name(s): neutral sphingomyelinase
Systematic name: sphingomyelin cholinephosphohydrolase
Comments: Has very little activity on phosphatidylcholine.
Links to other databases: BRENDA, EXPASY, KEGG, Metacyc, PDB, CAS registry number: 9031-54-3
References:
1. Barnholz, Y., Roitman, A. and Gatt, S. Enzymatic hydrolysis of sphingolipids. II. Hydrolysis of sphingomyelin by an enzyme from rat brain. J. Biol. Chem. 241 (1966) 3731-3737. [PMID: 5916388]
2. Chatterjee, S. and Ghosh, N. Neutral sphingomyelinase from human urine. Purification and preparation of monospecific antibodies. J. Biol. Chem. 264 (1989) 12554-12561. [PMID: 2545711]
3. Heller, M. and Shapiro, B. Enzymic hydrolysis of sphingomyelin by rat liver. Biochem. J. 98 (1966) 763-769. [PMID: 5911524]
4. Kanfer, J.N., Young, O.M., Shapiro, D. and Brady, R.O. The metabolism of sphingomyelin. I. Purification and properties of a sphingomyelin-cleaving enzyme from rat liver tissue. J. Biol. Chem. 241 (1966) 1081-1084. [PMID: 5933867]