Necroptosis and Alzheimer’s Disease: Pathogenic Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is considered to be the most common neurodegenerative disease, with clinical symptoms encompassing progressive memory loss and cognitive impairment. Necroptosis is a form of programmed necrosis that promotes cell death and neuroinflammation, which further mediates the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases, especially AD. Current evidence has strongly suggested that necroptosis is activated in AD brains, resulting in neuronal death and cognitive impairment. We searched the PubMed database, screening all articles published before September 28, 2022 related to necroptosis in the context of AD pathology. The keywords in the search included: “necroptosis”, “Alzheimer’s disease”, “signaling pathways”, “Aβ”, Aβo”, “Tau”, “p-Tau”, “neuronal death”, “BBB damage”, “neuroinflammation”, “microglia”, “mitochondrial dysfunction”, “granulovacuolar degeneration”, “synaptic loss”, “axonal degeneration”, “Nec-1”, “Nec-1s”, “GSK872”, “NSA”, “OGA”, “RIPK1”, “RIPK3”, and “MLKL”. Results show that necroptosis has been involved in multiple pathological processes of AD, including amyloid-β aggregation, Tau accumulation, neuronal death, and blood-brain barrier damage, etc. More importantly, existing research on AD necroptosis interventions, including drug intervention and potential gene targets, as well as its current clinical development status, was discussed. Finally, the issues pertaining to necroptosis in AD were presented. Accordingly, this review may provide further insight into clinical perspectives and challenges for the future treatment of AD by targeting the necroptosis pathway.