Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 14, 2024; 30(34): 3856-3861
Published online Sep 14, 2024. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v30.i34.3856
Overview of ferroptosis and pyroptosis in acute liver failure
Ya-Wen Sun, Bo-Wen Zhao, Hai-Fang Li, Guang-Xiao Zhang
Ya-Wen Sun, Bo-Wen Zhao, Hai-Fang Li, Guang-Xiao Zhang, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai’an 271018, Shandong Province, China
Co-first authors: Ya-Wen Sun and Bo-Wen Zhao.
Author contributions: Sun YW and Zhao BW wrote the original draft, and revised the manuscript; Zhang GX wrote the original draft; Li HF supervised, conceived, verified, reviewed, and edited the manuscript. All authors were involved in the critical review of the results and have contributed to reading and approving the final manuscript. Sun YW and Zhao BW contributed equally to this work as co-first authors. The reasons for designating Sun YW and Zhao BW as co-first authors are twofold. First, the review was prepared as a collaborative effort with Sun YW and Zhao BW contributing equally to literature searching, draft writing, and manuscript revising. The designation of co-first authors authorship reflects the distribution of responsibilities and burdens associated with the time and effort required to complete the review and ensure effective communication and management of post-submission matters. Second, Sun YW and Zhao BW are skilled in different fields, which promotes the most comprehensive and in-depth discussion of the review topic, ultimately enriching reader understanding by offering various expert perspectives.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hai-Fang Li, PhD, Associate Professor, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, No. 61 Daizong Street, Tai'an 271018, Shandong Province, China. hfli1228@163.com
Received: March 24, 2024
Revised: August 14, 2024
Accepted: August 16, 2024
Published online: September 14, 2024
Processing time: 170 Days and 1.9 Hours
Abstract

In this editorial, we comment on the article by Zhou et al published in a recent issue. We specifically focus on the crucial roles of ferroptosis and pyroptosis in acute liver failure (ALF), a disease with high mortality rates. Ferroptosis is the result of increased intracellular reactive oxygen species due to iron accumulation, glutathione (GSH) depletion, and decreased GSH peroxidase 4 activity, while pyroptosis is a procedural cell death mediated by gasdermin D which initiates a sustained inflammatory process. In this review, we describe the characteristics of ferroptosis and pyroptosis, and discuss the involvement of the two cell death modes in the onset and development of ALF. Furthermore, we summarize several interfering methods from the perspective of ferroptosis and pyroptosis for the alleviation of ALF. These observations might provide new targets and a theoretical basis for the treatment of ALF, which are also crucial for improving the prognosis of patients with ALF.

Keywords: Acute liver failure; Ferroptosis; Pyroptosis; Glutathione peroxidase 4; Gasdermin D

Core Tip: In this review we describe the characteristics of ferroptosis and pyroptosis, and discuss the involvement of the two cell death modes in the onset and development of acute liver failure (ALF). Furthermore, we summarize several interfering methods from the perspective of ferroptosis and pyroptosis for the alleviation of ALF. These observations might provide new targets and a theoretical basis for the treatment of ALF, which is also crucial for improving the prognosis of patients with ALF.