Necroptosis

Cell death is regulated by a variety of mechanisms. This review focuses on one of the more recently identified forms of programmed cell death, necroptosis, and its role in normal and disease states. This pathway provides new targets for therapeutic intervention. As early as the mid-19th century, Rudolf Virchow taught that necrosis is a recognizable form of cell death; since then, pathologists have identified necrosis as both a cause and a consequence of disease. A century later, another form of cell death, apoptosis, was defined, and we now understand that this process is driven by a set of molecular mechanisms that programs the cell to die. It has often been assumed that necrosis is distinct from apoptosis, in part because of the belief that necrosis is not programmed by molecular events. It is now clear, however, that in some contexts, necrotic ...