We Thought This Cell Death Phenomenon Was Irreversible, But We Were Wrong

According to new research, the process of programmed cell death can be stopped and managed, which is different from the previous thought that the process was irreversible once it got going.

Killing off cells with pyroptosis is a method the body uses to stay healthy. The unpredictability of how cell death is initiated, along with the different effects it has in different people, makes studying it difficult.

The research team here used a new way of analyzing the phenomenon, creating a custom-made version of aProtein linked to cell death that responded to light. There were lab experiments that showed signs of self-regulating in response to external circumstances.

Gary Mo from the University of Illinois Chicago says that this form of cell death is not a one-way ticket. The process is programmed with a cancel button.

The optogenetic version of gasdermin was created for the study. It opens large pores in the cells in order to kill them off.

The researchers were able to see that the opened pores were closed again in seconds if they had a concentration of calcium ion.

It's still early in the process of figuring out why this happens and the exact circumstances thattrigger it, but it's clear that it can start and then stop depending on what else is happening around it.

"Our optogenetic gasdermin allowed us to skip over the unpredictable pathogen behavior and the variable cellular response because it mimics at the molecular level what happens in the cell once pyroptosis is initiated," says Mo.

Several diseases, including some cancers, are the result of malfunctioning cell death processes that aren't working as they should. This malfunctioning can cause inflammation to get out of control, like with sepsis.

An improved knowledge of how cell death works could lead to improved treatments if we can find ways of controlling which cells are getting killed off.

As pathogens get smarter, it's important that we continue to have the drugs to beat them.

Mo says that understanding how to control this process unlocks new avenues for drug discovery.

It allows us to think about how we can boost or limit this type of cell death in diseases, where we could previously only remove it.

The research has been published.