Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have found that a cytokine, a category of protein that acts as messengers in the body, and a fatty acid can work together to trigger a type of cell death previously defined by studies with synthetic molecules. The new study, published online on February 24, 2022 in Cancer Cell, looked at cell cultures and in vivo mouse experiments to see how the release of a T-cell cytokine called interferon gamma (image), combined with arachidonic acid, a fatty acid, leads to a type of cell death called ferroptosis via targeting the enzyme ACSL4. Ferroptosis has been found to occur in tumor cells and play a role in cancer immunity. Understanding how ferroptosis occurs could open pathways to make immunotherapy treatments more effective. The article is titled “CD8+ T Cells and Fatty Acids Orchestrate Tumor Ferroptosis and Immunity Via ACSL4.”