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Updated: Nov 11, 2025

Author Spotlight: Tracing the Ferroptotic Signatures and Cell Death Dynamics in Medulloblastoma for Advanced Therapeutics
Published on: March 15, 2024
Understanding the role of cysteine in ferroptosis: progress & paradoxes
Carson D Poltorack1, Scott J Dixon1
1Department of Biology, Stanford University, CA, USA.
Abstract:
Cysteine is a conditionally essential amino acid required for the synthesis of proteins and many important intracellular metabolites. Cysteine depletion can trigger iron-dependent nonapoptotic cell death-ferroptosis. Despite this, cysteine itself is normally maintained at relatively low levels within the cell, and many mechanisms that could act to buffer cysteine depletion do not appear to be especially effective or active, at least in cancer cells. How do we reconcile these seemingly paradoxical features? Here, we describe the regulation of cysteine and its contribution to ferroptosis and speculate about how the levels of this amino acid are controlled to govern nonapoptotic cell death.
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