Induction of Pyroptosis and Its Implications in Cancer Management

Yan-Yang Wang; Xin-Lan Liu; Ren Zhao

doi:10.3389/fonc.2019.00971

Induction of Pyroptosis and Its Implications in Cancer Management

Front Oncol. 2019 Sep 26:9:971. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2019.00971. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Yan-Yang Wang^{1

2}, Xin-Lan Liu³, Ren Zhao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiation Oncology, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China.
² Cancer Institute, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China.
³ Department of Medical Oncology, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China.

Abstract

Pyroptosis is a gasdermins mediated programmed cell death, which has been widely studied in inflammatory disease models. Recently, there are growing evidences that pyroptosis can be chemically induced in cancer cells without any bacterial or viral infection. Pyroptosis may affect all stages of carcinogenesis and has become a new topic in cancer research. In this review, we first briefly introduced pyroptosis. In the subsequent section, we discussed the induction of pyroptosis in cancer and its potential role as a promising target for cancer therapy. In addition, the biological characteristics of gasdermin D (GSDMD) and gasdermin E (GSDME), two important pyroptosis substrates, and their prognostic role in cancer management were reviewed. These results help us to understand the pathogenesis of cancer and develop new drugs, which based on pyroptosis modulation, for cancer patients.

Keywords: cancer progression; gasdermin D (GSDMD); gasdermin E (GSDME); pyroptosis; therapeutic sensitivity.

Publication types

Review