REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders : Autoimmune Disorders
The PANoptotic Mosaic of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Epitranscriptomic Regulation, Systemic Relays, and Precision Death-Mode Editing
Provisionally accepted
- 1The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China
- 2Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China
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The persistence of difficult-to-treat rheumatoid arthritis (D2T-RA) underscores a fundamental disruption in synovial cell death homeostasis, transcending the limitations of conventional cytokine blockade. By integrating multi-omics, molecular imaging, and bio-responsive nanotechnologies, we characterized the PANoptosis framework—a synergistic programmed cell death (PCD) system converging apoptosis, pyroptosis, and necroptosis. Our findings reveal that environmental stressors perturb cellular antioxidant defenses, thereby precipitating PANoptosome assembly through mechanisms such as autoantibody-mediated biophysical triggers. Systemic crosstalk, spanning lung-derived inflammatory signals and gut metabolic rheostats, orchestrates synovial fate. Mechanistically, epitranscriptomic RNA methylation and dysregulated molecular switches within the PANoptosome drive inflammatory flares, while distal effects involve extracellular vesicle-mediated cartilage damage. Therapeutic interventions, such as bio-responsive nanoplatforms, effectively reprogram death modes toward inflammatory resolution. We conclude that PANoptosis is a central driver of RA pathogenesis, and its precision targeting via "death-mode editing" represents a paradigm shift from broad immunosuppression toward curative interventions. This work establishes a comprehensive PANoptic model and identifies actionable therapeutic avenues, offering transformative potential for the clinical management of RA.
Keywords: Death-Mode Editing, m6A Epitranscriptomics, PANoptosis, Rheumatoid arthritis, SynovialMicroenvironment Remodeling
Received: 11 Jan 2026; Accepted: 13 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Li, Wan and Zhang. 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: Shu Li
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