Cysteine depletion induces pancreatic tumor ferroptosis in mice
Abstract
Cell death can occur through different mechanisms, several of which are being explored as potential targets for cancer treatment. One form of cell death that has attracted recent interest is ferroptosis, which is triggered by high intracellular levels of lipid reactive oxygen species. Pancreatic cancer cells have high levels of reactive oxygen species but manage to avoid ferroptosis by importing extracellular cysteine. Studying mice bearing pancreatic tumors, Badgley et al. found that administration of a drug inhibiting cysteine import induced tumor-selective ferroptosis and inhibited tumor growth. Further work will be required to determine whether this therapeutic strategy will be effective in human pancreatic cancer, a tumor type for which new treatments are urgently needed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 03, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.aaw9872
Entities
People
- Alice Ma
- Alina Iuga
- Amanda R Decker
- Brent R Stockwell
- Candice Lamb
- Carlo Maurer
- Carmine F. Palermo
- Christina E. M. Firl
- Costas A Lyssiotis
- Daniel M Kremer
- E. Scott Seeley
- Everett Stone
- Geoffrey M Wahl
- George Georgiou
- Ho-Joon Lee
- Irina R Sagalovskiy
- Jonathan Kapilian
- Kathleen E DelGiorno
- Kenneth P Olive
- Leonardo R Andrade
- Li Zhang
- Michael A Badgley
- Peter Sajjakulnukit
- Steve A. Sastra
- Tal Hirschhorn
- Tong Liu
- Uri Manor
- Vinee Purohit
- Wei Gu
- Zachary P. Tolstyka
Organizations
- Columbia University
- Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
- Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
- Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research
- National Cancer Institute
- National Institutes of Health
- Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies
- Sidney Kimmel Foundation
- Technical University of Munich
- United States Department of Defense
- United States Department of Education
- University of California
- University of Michigan
- University of Texas at Austin
- V Foundation for Cancer Research
- Waitt Foundation