Constitutive Hepatic mTORC1 Activation Aggravates Alcohol-Induced Liver Injury via Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Mediated Ferroptosis.

Summary: Drinking too much alcohol can badly damage the liver. Inside our liver cells, there is a switch called mTORC1 that controls how the cell uses energy. Usually, a helper called DEPDC5 keeps this switch turned off when it's not needed. In this study, scientists looked at mice missing this helper. Without it, the switch stayed on all the time. When these mice were given alcohol, their liver damage was much worse than normal. The stuck switch caused severe stress inside the cells and led to a type of cell death called ferroptosis. This shows that keeping the mTORC1 switch under control is key to protecting the liver from alcohol damage.