Recent progress in pyroptosis probes and inducers

Abstract

Pyroptosis is a newly identified form of regulated cell death driven by pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), environment- or host-derived damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), gram-negative bacteria, and chemotherapy drugs. Emerging evidence shows the potential of pyroptosis for biosensor development and cancer therapy, particularly for treating cancers resistant to traditional therapies. However, the published pyroptosis reviews mainly focused on multiple pyroptosis mechanisms and pathways. Therefore, it is timely to summarize the application of pyroptosis-based fluorescent probes highlighted by their detection capabilities and sensitivity as well as promising pyroptosis-inducing agents (including small molecules and nanomaterials) for cancer therapy. In this review, we comprehensively reviewed the current strategies for both probes and inducers to diagnosis or fight against cancers based on pyroptosis. We also highlighted the advantages of their strategies of design, mechanism, and application and provided new insights to overcome their challenges.