Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Jul 6;15(1):199.
doi: 10.1186/s12974-018-1235-0.

Necroptosis: a regulated inflammatory mode of cell death

Affiliations
Review

Necroptosis: a regulated inflammatory mode of cell death

Yogesh K Dhuriya et al. J Neuroinflammation. .

Abstract

Programmed cell death has a vital role in embryonic development and tissue homeostasis. Necroptosis is an alternative mode of regulated cell death mimicking features of apoptosis and necrosis. Necroptosis requires protein RIPK3 (previously well recognized as regulator of inflammation, cell survival, and disease) and its substrate MLKL, the crucial players of this pathway. Necroptosis is induced by toll-like receptor, death receptor, interferon, and some other mediators. Shreds of evidence based on a mouse model reveals that deregulation of necroptosis has been found to be associated with pathological conditions like cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and inflammatory diseases. In this timeline article, we are discussing the molecular mechanisms of necroptosis and its relevance to diseases.

Keywords: Inflammation; MLKL; Necroptosis; Neurodegenerative disease; RIPK3.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Molecular mechanism of apoptosis and necroptosis. Death receptor mediates both extrinsic apoptosis as well as necroptosis; RIPK1 plays a key role in apoptosis and necroptosis. Activation of caspase-8 drives the pathway towards apoptosis while its inhibition leading to necroptosis. During necroptosis, RIPK1 and RIPK3 interact with each other resulting in the formation of functional heterodimer complex; this complex promotes oligomerization of MLKL by phosphorylating it. Oligomeric form of MLKL translocates towards the plasma membrane from cytosol resulting in the formation of the pore, causing an inflammatory response. In spite of pore formation, MLKL also mediates its effect after interacting with ion channels
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
RIPK-dependent inflammation. RIPK3 kinase activity, critical for oligomerization of MLKL that culminates with inflammation. Activation of RIPK3 is mediated by RIPK1 as well as other mediators like TLR3/TLR4 and interferon

References

    1. Galluzzi L, Vitale I, Abrams JM, Alnemri ES, Baehrecke EH, Blagosklonny MV, et al. Molecular definitions of cell death subroutines: recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death. Cell Death Differ. 2012;19:107. doi: 10.1038/cdd.2011.96. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Degterev A, Huang Z, Boyce M, Li Y, Jagtap P, Mizushima N, et al. Chemical inhibitor of nonapoptotic cell death with therapeutic potential for ischemic brain injury. Nat Chem Biol. 2005;1:112–119. doi: 10.1038/nchembio711. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Degterev A, Hitomi J, Germscheid M, Ch'en IL, Korkina O, Teng X, et al. Identification of RIP1 kinase as a specific cellular target of necrostatins. Nat Chem Biol. 2008;4:313–321. doi: 10.1038/nchembio.83. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Berghe TV, Linkermann A, Jouan-Lanhouet S, Walczak H, Vandenabeele P. Regulated necrosis: the expanding network of non-apoptotic cell death pathways. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2014;15:135–147. doi: 10.1038/nrm3737. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Taylor RC, Cullen SP, Martin SJ. Apoptosis: controlled demolition at the cellular level. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2008;9:231–241. doi: 10.1038/nrm2312. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances