The mechanism of linear ubiquitination in regulating cell death and correlative diseases

Linear ubiquitination is a specific post-translational modification in which ubiquitin is linked through M1 residue to form multiple types of polyubiquitin chains on substrates in order to regulate cellular processes. LUBAC comprised by HOIP, HOIL-1L, and SHARPIN as a sole E3 ligase catalyzes the generation of linear ubiquitin chains, and it is simultaneously adjusted by deubiquitinases such as OTULIN and CYLD. Several studies have shown that gene mutation of linear ubiquitination in mice accompanied by different modalities of cell death would develop relative diseases. Cell death is a fundamental physiological process and responsible for embryonic development, organ maintenance, and immunity response. Therefore, it is worth speculating that linear ubiquitin mediated signaling pathway would participate in different diseases. The relative literature search was done from core collection of electronic databases such as Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar using keywords about main regulators of linear ubiquitination pathway. Here, we summarize the regulatory mechanism of linear ubiquitination on cellular signaling pathway in cells with apoptosis, necroptosis, autophagy, pyroptosis, and ferroptosis. Intervening generation of linear ubiquitin chains in relative signaling pathway to regulate cell death might provide novel therapeutic insights for various human diseases.