REVIEW article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Cell Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1641323
Targeting Ferroptosis for Neuroprotection: Potential Therapeutic Avenues in Neurodegenerative and Neuropsychiatric Diseases
Provisionally accepted- The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent programmed cell death that plays an important role in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. In the present study, we have highlighted how different risk factors are involved in the induction of ferroptosis in brain cells. In addition, we also demonstrated how ferroptosis plays an important role in different brain diseases. In our study why we focused and elaborated on the mechanisms of ferroptosis only in brain cells (Neurons, oligodendrocytes, and microglia) because they are particularly vulnerable to such kind of cell death. Additionally, brain cells are more dependent on mitochondrial function, iron regulation, and high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) as compared to peripheral body cells. Highlighting ferroptosis is more important because it has demonstrated several important mechanisms of neuronal injury and dysfunction which provides a deep understanding of the etiology of various brain diseases that were not sufficiently described by other programmed cell death pathways. Therefore, it has led to the exploration of new therapeutic strategies against various brain diseases and thus targeting ferroptosis-related proteins opens a new therapeutic window for several incurable brain diseases, and various ferroptosis regulators are now under clinical trials. However, their validation as a preclinical therapeutic agent is needed. Interestingly, here in our study we also summarize the most recent potential therapeutic targets and promising interventions which will provide a beam of light for future therapies against major brain diseases.
Keywords: ferroptosis, Lipid Peroxidation, Oxidative Stress, neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA), Aceruloplasminemia, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease
Received: 04 Jun 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Khan, Hu, Ma and Bopassa. 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: Jean C. Bopassa, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.