Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Chemical genetics

Unraveling cell death mysteries

Nature Chemical Biology volume 12, pages 470–471 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Non-apoptotic regulated cell death is not fully characterized, particularly for ferroptosis, the iron- and ROS-dependent form of regulated cell death. A systematic approach using modulatory profiling and cell line sensitivity analysis has unraveled the association of lipid metabolism with ferroptosis and enabled the discovery of a novel specific ferroptosis inducer.

Regulated cell death, despite its negative connotation, is essential in many physiological processes, including tissue sculpting during embryogenesis, development of the immune system and destruction of damaged cells1. The dysregulation of cell death has been associated with many pathological processes, such as cancer, neurodegeneration and tissue injury. A well-characterized form of regulated cell death is apoptosis; however, alternative mechanisms such as necroptosis2, autophagy3 and ferroptosis4 have been classified but remain less understood. To gain further insight and dissect the mechanisms governing these alternative forms of cell death, Shimada et al.5 embarked on a small-molecule phenotypic screen for inducers of non-apoptotic cell death. In this issue, the authors identify components of lipid metabolism as novel regulators of ferroptosis and a small molecule, FIN56, that specifically induces ferroptosis with a mechanism that is distinct from that of previously described ferroptosis inducers.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Induction of ferroptosis by FIN56.

References

  1. Fuchs, Y. & Steller, H. Cell 147, 742–758 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Degterev, A. et al. Nat. Chem. Bio. 1, 112–119 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Liu, Y. & Levine, B. Cell Death Diff. 22, 367–376 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Dixon, S.J. et al. Cell 149, 1060–1072 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Shimada, K. et al. Nat. Chem. Biol. 12, 497–503 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Souers, A.J. et al. Nat. Med. 19, 202–208 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Okada, H. & Mak, T.W. Nat. Rev. Cancer 4, 592–603 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Vanden Berghe, T. et al. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 15, 135–147 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Yang, W.S. & Stockwell, B.R. Trends Cell Biol. 26, 165–176 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Yang, W.S. et al. Cell 156, 317–331 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Xiomaris M. Cotto-Rios and Evripidis Gavathiotis are at the Departments of Biochemistry and Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.,

    Xiomaris M Cotto-Rios & Evripidis Gavathiotis

Authors
  1. Xiomaris M Cotto-Rios
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Evripidis Gavathiotis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Evripidis Gavathiotis.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cotto-Rios, X., Gavathiotis, E. Unraveling cell death mysteries. Nat Chem Biol 12, 470–471 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2110

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2110

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research