Ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases: inhibitors as promising candidate mitigators

R.-F. Zhang, M. Zeng, N. Lv, L.-M. Wang, Q.-Y. Yang, J.-L. Gan, H.-H. Li, B. Yu, X.-J. Jiang, L. Yang

School of Integrative Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China. xijuanjiang@foxmail.com

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• Molecular Biology
• Neurology

OBJECTIVE: Ferroptosis is a new form of iron-dependent programmed cell death, characterized by intracellular iron overload and lipid peroxidation. Several studies have revealed that ferroptosis is associated with the occurrence and development of various neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). Therefore, this paper reviews the mechanism and related genes of ferroptosis, focusing on the research of antiferroptosis drugs in NDs to provide theoretical support for future experimental research and clinical application.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This work focuses on ferroptosis, and the authors searched the literature on PubMed related to ferroptosis using the keywords “neurodegenerative diseases” and “neurons”. All articles were from August 2022 and earlier, excluding irrelevant or retracted articles, and articles from the last five years were used as the main inclusion criteria.

RESULTS: After collection and summary, it was found that ferroptosis in NDs was not only related to iron metabolism, lipid metabolism, and amino acid metabolism but also related to genes such as Nrf2, FSP1, VDACs, and p53. We also summarized drugs that inhibited ferroptosis in NDs and classified them according to their mechanism of action.

CONCLUSIONS: Ferroptosis was involved in the progression of NDs through its production mechanism and related genes. Targeting ferroptosis might be a new strategy for treating NDs.

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