REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Cell Signaling
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1568391
Food-derived Compounds Targeting Ferroptosis for Cancer Therapy: from Effects to Mechanisms
Provisionally accepted
- 1Second Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
- 2Jilin Airport Hospital, Jilin, China
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Ferroptosis is a unique form of programmed cell death. The increased iron levels in tumor cells make them more prone to ferroptosis. Inducing ferroptosis can activate immune cells, regulate immune evasion, and inhibit the biology activity of cancer cells. Therefore, ferroptosis-induced cancer cell death may become an effective strategy for cancer treatment.Dietary compounds are an important source for drug discovery, and there has been an increasing amount of literature on food-derived ferroptosis inducers and their applications in cancer therapy.This review summarizes the regulatory mechanisms of ferroptosis, explores the mechanisms by which dietary compounds act as ferroptosis inducers, and discusses their effects on various cancers, especially through lipid ROS accumulation and Fe2+ overload, as well as the inhibition of GPX4 expression to promote ferroptosis in tumors. Additionally, the latest advancements in new methods for inducing ferroptosis, including the use of nanomaterials, are also summarized.Finally, the challenges and opportunities of developing dietary compounds as ferroptosis inducers are discussed, focusing on the discovery of new targets, improving selectivity, and reducing toxicity and side effects. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive and systematic review on the anticancer effects and mechanisms of food-derived ferroptosis inducers.
Keywords: food-derived bioactive ingredients, Ferroptosis inducer, Synergistic mechanism, Cancer, Treatment
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 jinwei, Wei-yi and Zhongyang. 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: Yu Zhongyang, Jilin Airport Hospital, Jilin, China
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