Figure 1.

AMPK suppresses ferroptosis in the context of energy stress. Energy stress-mediated adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation inhibits acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), blocking the conversion of acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA. Malonyl-CoA is used to synthesize certain polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as arachidonic acid (AA) and adrenic acid (AdA). AA and AdA are then esterified into the phosphoethanolamine (PE) to generate PE-AA and PE-AdA, which are susceptible to undergo lipid peroxidation. If the lipid peroxide repair system is defective, these oxidized lipids cause ferroptosis.