MLKL and ischemia: In summary, the current study provides important evidence that NSA exerts protective effects against focal ischemia/reperfusion injury through inhibiting necroptosis via preventing the upregulation of necroptosis kinases such as MLKL/p-MLKL, RIP3K/p-RIP3K, and RIP1K/p-RIP1K in ischemic penumbra of cerebral cortex and ischemic astrocytes, as well as blocking both the nucleus and nuclear envelope localization of p-MLKL and p-RIP3K.