Unleashing the potential of ferroptosis, autophagy, and mitochondrial dynamics as emerging modalities in cancer treatment

Figure 4 Ferroptosis regulatory pathway, along with the effects of drugs on ferroptosis. System Xc^- is a heterodimer of a light chain and heavy chain subunit, solute carrier family 7 member 11 (SLC7A11) and SLC3A2, respectively. These function in importing cysteine and exporting glutamate. The accumulation of a labile iron pool, reactive oxygen species, and lipid peroxidation plays a crucial role in causing ferroptosis. Glutathione phosphate (GPX4) is responsible for lipid peroxidation. Drugs such as erastin and sorafenib may inhibit the role of System Xc^-. RAS-selective lethal 3 inhibits the activity of GPX4.