1,000 Ways to die: natural compounds modulate non-canonical cell death pathways in cancer cells

Abstract

Over the past decades, apoptosis emerged as a leading strategy to eliminate cancer cells. Nowadays, it becomes progressively clear that apoptosis is not the only programmed cell death mechanism implicated in the elimination of malignant cells. This review will discuss non-apoptotic cell death modalities and will focus on natural compounds acting as inducers of these recently described processes. We will describe the major molecular characteristics of each individual death mechanism and we will detail the effects of natural and naturally-derived compounds on these cellular mechanisms.