A decade of cell death studies: Breathing new life into necroptosis

Abstract

Programmed cell death (PCD) has been a major area of constantly growing interest over the last three decades. Originally, apoptosis was considered the only mechanistic pathway for PCD, but recently several different pathways (i.e., necroptosis, pyroptosis, ferroptosis) have emerged as important in both normal and pathological conditions. This review focuses on programmed cell necrosis (i.e., necroptosis) as a promising research direction that will help us in understanding the molecular and cellular processes behind different pathological conditions, such as chronic inflammation, neurodegeneration, and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, we discuss natural and chemical compounds and novel targeted therapies triggering necroptosis to induce cell death in cancer cells to overcome chemoresistance.

Keywords: Cancer; Cardiovascular disorders; Cell death; Cell programmed necrosis; MLKL; Necroptosis; Neurodegenerative diseases; RIPK1; RIPK3.