Piperlongumine treatment inactivates peroxiredoxin 4, exacerbates endoplasmic reticulum stress, and preferentially kills high-grade glioma cells.

Backgrounds: Piperlongumine, a natural plant product, kills multiple cancer types with little effect on normal cells. Piperlongumine raises intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), a phenomenon that may underlie the cancer-cell killing. Although these findings suggest that piperlongumine could be useful for treating cancers, the mechanism by which the drug selectively kills cancer cells remains unknown.