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TFCP2L1 promotes GPX4-mediated ferroptosis to inhibit breast cancer cell proliferation and metastasis via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway

ABSTRACT: Breast cancer represents the most prevalent form of malignant tumors among women. Despite the existence of numerous therapeutic methods, a significant portion of patients face a poor prognosis, highlighting the urgency in identifying new remedial targets. Here, we for the first time demonstrated that the CP2 family member TFCP2L1, a classical marker of embryonic stem cell maintenance, as a tumor suppressor in breast cancer. Patients with breast cancer have poorer prognoses when TFCP2L1 is expressed highly. Consistently, the expression of TFCP2L1 is higher in normal breast cells than those in breast cancer cell lines. Gain- and loss-of-function and xenograft tumor assay showed that overexpression of TFCP2L1 significantly inhibited both the proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells in vivo and in vitro. Conversely, the knockdown of TFCP2L1 promoted the proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells. Mechanistically, we found that TFCP2L1 suppresses breast cancer progression by directly inhibiting the expression of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), a key regulator of ferroptosis. Therefore, inhibition of GPX4 by RSL3, an inducer of ferroptosis was able to promote the function of TFCP2L1 in breast cancer cells. On the other hand, transcriptome high-throughput exhibited that TFCP2L1 negatively regulated the activity of PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. Administration of SC79, an AKT activator, was capable of partially restoring the negative effects of TFCP2L1 on GPX4 transcription. Together, TFCP2L1 functions by directly or indirectly regulating GPX4-mediated ferroptosis, and may serve as a novel biomarker and potential therapeutic target for breast cancer.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE270578 | GEO | 2024/07/30

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Ferroptosis is a form of regulated cell death characterized by iron-dependent overaccumulation of lipid peroxides. It can be prevented by cellular mechanisms such as GPX4-mediated elimination of the lipid peroxides at the cost of glutathione (GSH). Since originally being discovered as a property of RAS-mutant cancer cells, ferroptosis has been shown to be regulated by several important oncogenes and tumor suppressors. In particular, LIFR, the receptor of the pleiotropic cytokine LIF, has recently been shown to be required for ferroptosis, as loss of Lifr in mouse liver tumor confers the cells resistance to ferroptosis. In this study, however, we found that the LIFR-targeting drugs, EC330 and EC359, are potent inducers of ferroptosis, thus reflecting an interesting “gain-of-function” effect of EC330/EC359 on LIFR-associated ferroptosis. Treatment of various types of cells with EC330/EC359 causes a rapid nonapoptotic cell death with characteristic morphology of ferroptosis, which can be inhibited by iron chelator (DFO) and lipid ROS scavenger (Fer-1), but not pan-caspase inhibitor (z-VAD-fmk). Consistent with previous observations, the efficiency of EC330/EC359 appears to be correlated with the expression levels of LIF and LIFR. RNA-seq analysis showed that the EC330/EC359 treatment leads to (i) a gene expression profile highly resembling that of RSL3, the GPX4-targeting ferroptosis inducer, and (ii) a specific decrease of expression of a few gene encoding membrane-located proteins, especially those located on the mitochondria (e.g., TOMM6 and COX14), implying defects in cellular/mitochondrial membrane functions. Indeed, transmission electron microscopy imaging of the EC330/EC359-treated cells shows shrunken mitochondria and loss of mitochondrial cristae. EC330/EC359 also decreases the activity of GPX4 in the cells to the level comparable with RSL3; meanwhile, the intracellular level of GSH is also decreased, and thus GPX4 inactivation and GSH depletion may jointly disable the cells to eliminate the toxic lipid peroxides. Lastly, although the STAT3 and AKT signaling pathways downstream of LIFR are inhibited by EC330/EC359, inhibition of these pathways per se can only induce non-ferroptotic cell death, suggesting that the EC330/EC359-induced ferroptosis is independent of these downstream pathways; the LIFR-NFkB-LCN2 axis discovered recently in mouse liver tumor cells might not explain the EC330/EC359-induced ferroptosis either, because LCN2 is not detectable in the herein used cell lines. Taken together, these results reveal an unexpected role of the LIFR-targeting drugs EC330/EC359 as potent inducer of ferroptosis and, in combination with previous studies, suggest that there could be either unknown mechanism for the LIFR-associated ferroptosis or unknown target for EC330/EC359 to effect the ferroptosis induction.

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TFCP2L1 promotes GPX4-mediated ferroptosis to inhibit breast cancer cell proliferation and metastasis via the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway

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