Targetting ferroptosis for blood cell-related diseases.

Chen, Zhe; Jiang, Jinyong; Fu, Nian; Chen, Linxi

Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent cell death pathway and paticipants in various diseases. Current evidences suggest that ferroptosis can obviously affect the function of blood cells. This paper aims to elaborate the role of ferroptosis in blood cells and related diseases. Firstly, abnormal ferroptosis damages the developing red blood cells by breaking systemic iron homeostasis, leading to erythropoiesis suppression and anemia. Ferroptosis mediates neutrophils recruitment and neutrophil extracellular trap formation (NETosis). In T-cells, ferroptosis induces a novel point of synergy between immunotherapy and radiotherapy. Additionally, ferroptosis may mediate B cells differentiation, antibody responses and lymphoma. Nevertheless, increased ferroptosis can ameliorate acute myeloid leukemia and T-cell leukemia/lymphoma by inducing iron-dependent cancer cells death. Besides, ferroptosis activates platelets by increasing P-selectin, thus causing thromboembolism. Ferroptosis mediates virus infection and parasite infection by driving T-cell death and preventing T-cell immunity. Interestingly, ferroptosis is also considered as a critical player in COVID-19 infections, while targetting ferroptosis may also improve thromboembolism and prognosis in patients with COVID-19 infection. Overall, the crucial role of ferroptosis in blood cells will show a new therapeutic potential in blood cell-related diseases.Highlights:Ferroptosis shows a new therapeutic potential for blood cell-related diseases.Ferroptosis damages erythropoiesis and thus induces anemia.Ferroptosis induces platelet activation and leads to thromboembolism.Ferroptosis regulates T-cell and B-cell immunity, which participant in infectious diseases.Inversely, ferroptosis ameliorates acute myeloid leukemia and T-cell leukemia.