Targeting cell death processes for insect pest control: a promising but still underexploited strategy

Cell death-related processes are fundamental to insect physiology, playing essential roles in development, immune response, and metamorphosis, thereby maintaining tissue and organism's homeostasis. Among the various cell death mechanisms, apoptosis is crucial for sculpting tissues, eliminating damaged or infected cells, and limiting pathogen replication. In parallel, autophagy serves as a self-recycling process that facilitates nutrient allocation, stress resilience, and remodeling of larval structures during development but, in specific contexts, can be associated with cell death. Beyond their physiological importance, apoptosis and autophagy have emerged as attractive targets for pest control. To this purpose, two strategies can be envisaged: i) inducing cell death in key tissues using natural or synthetic compounds to compromise insects' physiology and ii) manipulating apoptotic and autophagic signaling pathways through chemical or genetic tools, such as RNA interference (RNAi) or clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 systems, to impair development and immunity, thus reducing insect survival and fitness. Harnessing these cell death pathways offers promising new avenues for controlling insect pests and vector-borne diseases. However, further research is needed to improve the specificity, efficacy, and environmental safety of these approaches.