Ferroptosis open a new door for colorectal cancer treatment

Hong Liang; Xia He; Yitong Tong; Niuniu Bai; Yushu Pu; Ke Han; Yi Wang

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1059520

Ferroptosis open a new door for colorectal cancer treatment

Front Oncol. 2023 Mar 16:13:1059520. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1059520. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hong Liang^{1

2}, Xia He^{1

2}, Yitong Tong³, Niuniu Bai^{1

4}, Yushu Pu⁵, Ke Han^{1

6}, Yi Wang⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
² Personalized Drug Therapy Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
³ Chengdu Second People's Hospital Party Committee Office, Chengdu, China.
⁴ School of Pharmacy, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China.
⁵ Nanchang University Queen Mary School, Nanchang, China.
⁶ Department of Pharmacy, The First People's Hospital of Chengdu, Chengdu, China.
⁷ Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sichuan Academy of Medical Science and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sicuhan, China.

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third highest incidence and the second highest mortality malignant tumor in the world. The etiology and pathogenesis of CRC are complex. Due to the long course of the disease and no obvious early symptoms, most patients are diagnosed as middle and late stages. CRC is prone to metastasis, most commonly liver metastasis, which is one of the leading causes of death in CRC patients. Ferroptosis is a newly discovered cell death form with iron dependence, which is driven by excessive lipid peroxides on the cell membrane. It is different from other form of programmed cell death in morphology and mechanism, such as apoptosis, pyroptosis and necroptosis. Numerous studies have shown that ferroptosis may play an important role in the development of CRC. For advanced or metastatic CRC, ferroptosis promises to open a new door in the setting of poor response to chemotherapy and targeted therapy. This mini review focuses on the pathogenesis of CRC, the mechanism of ferroptosis and the research status of ferroptosis in CRC treatment. The potential association between ferroptosis and CRC and some challenges are discussed.

Keywords: colorectal cancer; ferroptosis; inducer; molecular mechanism; nanomedicine 1.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (81802504 and 72174038), National key R&D Program of China (2020YFC2005500). It is also supported by Research Programs of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province (2022YFS0272, 2022YFH0005, 2023YFH0010), Personalized Drug Therapy Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province (2021ZD02, 2022YB02), Sichuan Medical Association (S16068 and Q19037), Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (TB2022047), and Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital (2022BH04, 2020LY06).