Therefore, ASM inhibitors hold promise for a number of new clinical therapies and might be used to prevent apoptosis and other negative effects occurring in different disease states such as in ischemia, stroke, Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's chorea, and of certain infections, in endotoxemia, and in atherosclerosis, and for the therapy of major depressive disorder [23], [32]–[39]. Here, SMPD1 is linked to infection.