Fig. 7

Adverse effects of chemotherapy drugs and nonchemotherapy drugs in pyroptosis pathway. a Tissue damage: pyroptosis triggered by chemotherapy drugs in normal cells with high GSDME-expression contributes to their cytotoxicity mainly via GSDME-mediated pyroptosis. b Cytokine storm: immune cells like CD8 + T cells and NK cells release a large amount of perforin, GzmA and GzmB, thus promoting pyroptosis and pore-forming process. Cytokines like IL-1β, IL-18, ATP, LDH, and HMGB1 are released into the intercellular substance which subsequently activate immune cells, resulting in severe positive feedback regulatory between immune response and pyroptosis. Activation of pyroptosis in macrophages can release IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α, thus further exacerbating cytokine storm