Involvement of lipid radicals in new cell death ferroptosis

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K19405
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 47:Pharmaceutical sciences and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Yamada Ken-ichi 九州大学, 薬学研究院, 教授 (60346806)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-06-29 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 脂質 / フェロトーシス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In recent years, as a new cell death type, ferroptosis has been attracting attention, but the site of induction has been unclear. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to clarify whether lipid radicals were involved in the induction of ferroptosis. As a result, we found that lipid radicals were localized in the cell membrane and endoplasmic reticulum during induction of ferroptosis. Furthermore, we succeed to explain the difference in sensitivity of cells to ferroptosis.

Free Research Field

薬学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

フェロトーシスは、全く新しい細胞死形態であるため、その原因やメカニズムはほとんど分かっていない。本研究結果から、フェロトーシスの生成部位を明確にし、細胞間での感受性差も説明できる可能性を示した。このことは、新しい細胞死フェロトーシスの本質に迫っているのは間違いなく、「酸化脂質（脂質ラジカル）が単なる酸化副生成物ではなく、生体機能維持に極めて重要である」との新たな学理の発見とともに、創薬研究等への発展も期待できると考えている。