MINI REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Inflammation
PANoptosis: a new perspective for targeting programmed cell death after spinal cord injury
Provisionally accepted
- 1Suzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Suzhou, China
- 2Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
- 3China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
- 4Pei County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, xuzhou, China
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Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition characterized by a complex cascade of secondary injury following an initial mechanical insult. Among the mechanisms of secondary injury, multiple forms of programmed cell death (PCD)—including apoptosis, necroptosis, and pyroptosis—play key roles in tissue degeneration and loss of function. PANoptosis is a recently proposed concept of cell death that integrates the aforementioned three pro-inflammatory PCD pathways into a single process via a multi-protein complex called the PANoptosome. This review summarizes evidence for the involvement of PANoptosis in SCI pathophysiology and discusses intervention strategies targeting PANoptosis. Targeting PANoptosis offers a novel, holistic approach to mitigating secondary injury in SCI. However, its clinical translation remains challenging and requires further studies to validate efficacy and safety. Elucidating the assembly mechanisms of the PANoptosome and identifying critical regulatory molecules will aid in developing combination therapies and biomarkers to improve neuronal survival and functional recovery in patients with SCI.
Keywords: Inflammation, PANoptosis, pyroptosis, spinal cord injury, Z-DNA binding protein 1 (ZBP1)
Received: 20 Dec 2025; Accepted: 06 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Qian, Shi, Xie, Zhao and meng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Qiheng Qian
Lei Shi
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