The phenol red compound: A potential artifact in pharmacological induction of ferroptosis.

Phenol red (PR) is a commonly used compound in culture media as a pH indicator. However, it is unknown whether this compound can interfere with the pharmacological induction of ferroptosis. Here, using high-content live-cell imaging death analysis, we determined that the presence of PR in the culture medium preconditioned normal and tumor cells to ferroptosis induced by system x inhibition mediated by imidazole ketone erastin (IKE) or GPX4 blockade in response to RSL-3, but had no significant effects against treatment with the endoperoxide FINO.

Tanycytes release glucose using the glucose-6-phosphatase system during hypoglycemia to control hypothalamic energy balance.

Objective: The liver releases glucose into the blood using the glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase) system, a multiprotein complex located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Here, we show for the first time that the G6Pase system is also expressed in hypothalamic tanycytes, and it is required to regulate energy balance.

Methods: Using automatized qRT-PCR and immunohistochemical analyses, we evaluated the expression of the G6Pase system.

Dehydroascorbic acid sensitizes cancer cells to system x inhibition-induced ferroptosis by promoting lipid droplet peroxidation.

Since the discovery of ferroptosis, it has been postulated that this type of cell death could be utilized in treatments for cancer. Unfortunately, several highly aggressive tumor models are resistant to the pharmacological induction of ferroptosis. However, with the use of combined therapies, it is possible to recover sensitivity to ferroptosis in certain cellular models.

Pharmacological targets for the induction of ferroptosis: Focus on Neuroblastoma and Glioblastoma.

Neuroblastomas are the main extracranial tumors that affect children, while glioblastomas are the most lethal brain tumors, with a median survival time of less than 12 months, and the prognosis of these tumors is poor due to multidrug resistance. Thus, the development of new therapies for the treatment of these types of tumors is urgently needed. In this context, a new type of cell death with strong antitumor potential, called ferroptosis, has recently been described.