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Cell cycle arrest induces lipid droplet formation and confers ferroptosis resistance.

Hyemin LeeAmber D HorbathLavanya KondiparthiJitendra Kumar MeenaGuang LeiShayani DasguptaXiaoguang LiuLi ZhuangPranavi KoppulaMi LiIqbal MahmudBo WeiPhilip L LorenziKhandan KeyomarsiMasha V PoyurovskyKellen OlszewskiBoyi Gan
Published in: Nature communications (2024)
How cells coordinate cell cycling with cell survival and death remains incompletely understood. Here, we show that cell cycle arrest has a potent suppressive effect on ferroptosis, a form of regulated cell death induced by overwhelming lipid peroxidation at cellular membranes. Mechanistically, cell cycle arrest induces diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT)-dependent lipid droplet formation to sequester excessive polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that accumulate in arrested cells in triacylglycerols (TAGs), resulting in ferroptosis suppression. Consequently, DGAT inhibition orchestrates a reshuffling of PUFAs from TAGs to phospholipids and re-sensitizes arrested cells to ferroptosis. We show that some slow-cycling antimitotic drug-resistant cancer cells, such as 5-fluorouracil-resistant cells, have accumulation of lipid droplets and that combined treatment with ferroptosis inducers and DGAT inhibitors effectively suppresses the growth of 5-fluorouracil-resistant tumors by inducing ferroptosis. Together, these results reveal a role for cell cycle arrest in driving ferroptosis resistance and suggest a ferroptosis-inducing therapeutic strategy to target slow-cycling therapy-resistant cancers.
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