Transcriptional Repression of Ferritin Light Chain Increases Ferroptosis Sensitivity in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Yikun Wang; Shiyu Qiu; Hong Wang; Jiangtao Cui; Xiaoting Tian; Yayou Miao; Congcong Zhang; Leiqun Cao; Lifang Ma; Xin Xu; Yongxia Qiao; Xiao Zhang

doi:10.3389/fcell.2021.719187

Transcriptional Repression of Ferritin Light Chain Increases Ferroptosis Sensitivity in Lung Adenocarcinoma

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Oct 26:9:719187. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.719187. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Yikun Wang¹, Shiyu Qiu¹, Hong Wang², Jiangtao Cui³, Xiaoting Tian¹, Yayou Miao¹, Congcong Zhang⁴, Leiqun Cao⁴, Lifang Ma¹, Xin Xu¹, Yongxia Qiao², Xiao Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Institute of Thoracic Oncology, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
² School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Chest Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
⁴ School of Medicine, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, China.

Abstract

Ferroptosis is an iron- and lipid peroxidation-dependent form of regulated cell death. The release of labile iron is one of the important factors affecting sensitivity to ferroptosis. Yes-associated protein (YAP) controls intracellular iron levels by affecting the transcription of ferritin heavy chain (FTH) and transferrin receptor (TFRC). However, whether YAP regulates iron metabolism through other target genes remains unknown. Here, we observed that the system Xc^- inhibitor erastin inhibited the binding of the WW domain and PSY motif between YAP and transcription factor CP2 (TFCP2), and then suppressed the transcription of ferritin light chain (FTL) simultaneously mediated by YAP, TFCP2 and forkhead box A1 (FOXA1). Furthermore, inhibition of FTL expression abrogated ferroptosis-resistance in cells with sustained YAP expression. Unlike FTH, which exhibited first an increase and then a decrease in transcription, FTL transcription continued to decline after the addition of erastin, and a decrease in lysine acetyltransferase 5 (KAT5)-dependent acetylation of FTL was also observed. In lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) tissues, lipid peroxidation and labile iron decreased, while YAP, TFCP2 and FTL increased compared to their adjacent normal tissues, and the lipid peroxidation marker 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) was negatively correlated with the level of FTL or the degree of LUAD malignancy, but LUAD tissues with lower levels of 4-HNE showed a higher sensitivity to ferroptosis. In conclusion, the findings from this study indicated that the suppression of FTL transcription through the inhibition of the YAP-TFCP2-KAT5 complex could be another mechanism for elevating ferroptosis sensitivity and inducing cell death, and ferroptotic therapy is more likely to achieve better results in LUAD patients with a lower degree of lipid peroxidation.

Keywords: LUAD; TFCP2; YAP; erastin; labile iron; lipid peroxidation.