Necroptosis in inflammatory bowel disease: A potential effective target

The morbidity of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is rising rapidly but no curative therapies to prevent its recurrence. Cell death is crucial to maintaining homeostasis. Necroptosis is a newly identified programmed cell death and its roles played in IBD need to be explored. Necroptosis is mediated by receptor interacting protein kinase 1 (RIPK1), RIPK3, and mixed lineage kinase domain-like protein (MLKL), which resulted in cell swelling, plasma membrane rupture, intracellular content leaking, and eventually cell death as well as the promotion of inflammation. Studies have found that inhibiting necroptosis alleviated IBD in animal models and IBD patients with an increased level of necroptosis in inflammatory tissues, indicating that necroptosis is related to the pathogenesis of IBD. However, due to the complexity in regulation of necroptosis and the involvement of multiple functions of relevant signaling molecules, the specific mechanism remains elusive. Necroptosis may play a vital regulatory role in the pathogenesis of IBD, which provides a new idea and method for further exploring the therapeutic target of IBD.