β-Elemene induced ferroptosis via TFEB-mediated GPX4 degradation in EGFR wide-type non-small cell lung cancer.

Introduction: β-Elemene (β-ELE), derived from Curcuma wenyujin, has anticancer effect on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the potential target and detail mechanism were still not clear. TFEB is the master regulator of lysosome biogenesis. Ferroptosis, a promising strategy for cancer therapy could be triggered via suppression on glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Weather TFEB-mediated lysosome degradation contributes to GPX4 decline and how β-ELE modulates on this process are not clear.

Objectives: To observe the action of β-ELE on TFEB, and the role of TFEB-mediated GPX4 degradation in β-ELE induced ferroptosis.

Methods: Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and molecular docking were applied to observe the binding affinity of β-ELE on TFEB. Activation of TFEB and lysosome were observed by immunofluorescence, western blot, flow cytometry and qPCR. Ferroptosis induced by β-ELE was observed via lipid ROS, a labile iron pool (LIP) assay and western blot. A549 cells were established via CRISPR/Cas9. The regulation of TFEB on GPX4 and ferroptosis was observed in β-ELE treated A549 and A549 cells, which was further studied in orthotopic NOD/SCID mouse model.

Results: β-ELE can bind to TFEB, notably activate TFEB, lysosome and transcriptional increase on downstream gene GLA, MCOLN1, SLC26A11 involved in lysosome activity in EGFR wild-type NSCLC cells. β-ELE increased GPX4 ubiquitination and lysosomal localization, with the increase on lysosome degradation of GPX4. Furthermore, β-ELE induced ferroptosis, which could be promoted by TFEB overexpression or compromised by TFEB knockout. Genetic knockout or inactivation of TFEB compromised β-ELE induced lysosome degradation of GPX4, which was further demonstrated in orthotopic NSCLC NOD/SCID mice model.

Conclusion: This study firstly demonstrated that TFEB promoted GPX4 lysosome degradation contributes to β-ELE induced ferroptosis in EGFR wild-type NSCLC, which gives a clue that TFEB mediated GPX4 degradation would be a novel strategy for ferroptosis induction and NSCLC therapy.