Understanding the Regulation of Ferroptosis
Small molecules can be used to activate or inhibit protein function and thereby discover and study novel cellular phenotypes. The small molecule named erastin triggers a novel cell death phenotype called ferroptosis. Ferroptosis requires iron and reactive oxygen species production and is morphologically, biochemically and genetically distinct from apoptosis, programmed necrosis and autophagy-associated death. This pathway may be selectively activated by erastin and related molecules in certain RAS pathway-mutant tumors and may also be relevant to cell death during glutamate-induced neurodegeneration in the brain. Our current understanding of the ferroptotic pathway is outlined below.