PANOptosis

PANOptosis is a form of programmed cell death. PANoptosis has essential features of apoptosis, pyroptosis and necroptosis. PANoptosis appears to play a crucial role in tumorigenesis (Zhuang L et al.2023).

Pyroptosis, apoptosis and necroptosis are the most genetically well-defined pathways of programmed cell death (PCD) and are intimately involved in homeostasis and disease. Although the identification of key initiators, effectors and executors in each of these three PCD pathways has historically delineated them as distinct, increasing evidence suggests that there is a strong overlap between them. These observations have led to the establishment of the concept of PANoptosis, defined as an inflammatory PCD signaling pathway that is regulated by the PANoptosome complex and exhibits key features of pyroptosis, apoptosis and/or necroptosis that cannot be explained by any of these PCD pathways alone. There is molecular evidence that PANoptosis plays a critical role in many diseases, including infections, sterile inflammation and cancer (Pan H et al. 2022). The future discovery of novel PANoptotic components will further expand our understanding of the fundamental processes of cell death and inform the development of new therapeutics.

1. Pandian N et al. (2022) PANoptosis: A Unique Innate Immune Inflammatory Cell Death Modality. J Immunol 209:1625-1633
2. Pan H et al. (2022) Characterization of PANoptosis patterns predicts survival and immunotherapy response in gastric cancer. Clin Immunol 238:109019.
3. Zhuang L et al.(2023) A comprehensive analysis of PANoptosome to prognosis and immunotherapy response in pan-cancer. Sci Rep 13:3877.