Stress granules restrain ferroptosis by sequestering ferritin

Abstract

Glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs) are refractory to first-line treatment in the clinic, which includes irradiation (IR) and temozolomide (TMZ). Here we find that disrupting stress granules (SGs) sensitizes GSCs to IR/TMZ through ferroptosis. The profiling of SG proteins reveals the recruitment of iron-related proteins including ferritin. Mechanistically, G3BP1, an SG core protein, directly interacts with ferritin light chain in an IR/TMZ-induced G3BP1 methionine-333 oxidation-dependent manner. This interaction facilitates recruiting and sequestering ferritin into SGs, thereby restricting ferroptosis by limiting Fe²⁺ content in the labile iron pool and preventing ferritinophagy. Disrupting G3BP1 and ferritin light chain binding using a screened small molecule, ciwujianoside C3, mitigates the restriction of SGs on ferroptosis, and resensitizes GSCs to IR/TMZ in both in vitro and animal models. These findings unveil a negative regulation of SGs on ferroptosis, and reveal a promising strategy to disrupt the SG-ferroptosis axis for treating glioblastomas and probably other types of cancer.