Cited by 277Ferroptosis and cancer prognosisEsophageal Cancer Research and TreatmentGenomics, phytochemicals, and oxidative stress

SLC7A11 regulated by NRF2 modulates esophageal squamous cell carcinoma radiosensitivity by inhibiting ferroptosis

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Feng, Lei, Zhao, Kaikai, Sun, Liangchao, Yin, Xiaoyang, Zhang, Junpeng, Liu, Conghe, Li, Baosheng·2021·Journal of Translational Medicine

Abstract

Background: Solute carrier family 7 member 11(SLC7A11) is a component of cysteine/glutamate transporter, which plays a key role in tumor growth; however, its underlying effect on radiosensitivity in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unclear. This study aimed to clarify SLC7A11’s expression and correlation with nuclear expression of nuclear factor erythroid-2 ( NRF2)-associated radioresistance in ESCC. Methods: We included 127 ESCC patients who received radical chemoradiotherapy. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect SLC7A11 and NRF2 nuclear expression, and the relationship between clinicopathological characteristics and survival rates or therapy response were evaluated. Western blot, dual-reporter assays and Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-sequencing were used to analyze their relationship in vitro. Their roles in radioresistance were then investigated through multiple validation steps. Results: NRF2 nuclear expression and SLC7A11 expression were overexpressed in ESCC tissues and were positively correlated with one another. NRF2 nuclear expression was significantly associated with tumor length, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage, while SLC7A11 expression was associated with lymph node metastasis. Patients with high NRF2 nuclear expression and SLC7A11 expression had significantly shorter overall and progression-free survival, and poor treatment response. The multivariate model showed that NRF2 nuclear expression and SLC7A11 expression, sex and tumor location are independent prognostic factors. In vitro analysis confirmed that hyperactivation of NRF2 induced SLC7A11 expression by directly binding to its promoter region, promoting radioresistance, reducing radiotherapy-induced lipid peroxidation levels, PTGS2 expression, and radiotherapy-related ferroptosis morphologic features. Conclusion: Our study reveals a connection between high SLC7A11 expression and NRF2 nuclear expression in patients with ESCC that was related to worse survival and poorer therapy outcomes. SLC7A11-mediated ferroptosis inhibition induced NRF2-associated radioresistance, highlighting potential of NRF2/SLC7A11/ferroptosis axis as future therapeutic targets against therapy resistance biomarker.

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  • All ApoE isoforms increased the expression of known NRF2 target genes including SLC7A11, AKR1C1, and FTH1.

    “and increased the expression of known target genes of this transcription factor including SLC7A11, AKR1C1, and FTH1 (fig. S5S) (41–45).”

    From Secreted Apoe rewires melanoma cell state vulnerability to ferroptosis (2024) · cites this paper as [43]

    The Results section reports that NRF2 directly binds the SLC7A11 promoter and induces its expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells. The cited paper therefore supports identifying SLC7A11 as an NRF2 target, but our copy does not establish AKR1C1 or FTH1 as NRF2 targets. It also does not report an effect of ApoE isoforms; the citing sentence points to its own figure for that result. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Koppula P, Zhuang L, Gan B. Cystine transporter SLC7A11/xCT in cancer: ferroptosis, nutrient dependency, and cancer therapy. Protein Cell. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13238-020-00789-5. · DOI

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Authors
Feng, L., Zhao, K., Sun, L., Yin, X., Zhang, J., Liu, C., & Li, B.
Affiliations
  • Shandong Tumor Hospital (CN)
  • Binzhou Medical University (CN)
Corresponding author
Li, Baosheng
Venue
Journal of Translational Medicine
Published
2021-08-26
Volume
19
Issue
1
Pages
367-367
ISSN
1479-5876 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3194902068
Cited by
277
References
65
Citations by year
2026: 46 · 2025: 67 · 2024: 67 · 2023: 61 · 2022: 35 · 2021: 1
FWCI
26.79
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Translational Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81874224)
  • Academic promotion program of Shandong First Medical University (2019LJ004)
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0105106)
  • Taishan Scholar Construction Project (ts20120505)
  • Tumor prevention and control Joint Fund of Shandong province natural science fund (ZR2019LZL008)
  • Yantai Science and Technology Innovation Development Program (2020YT06121070)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Esophageal Cancer Research and Treatment
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics, phytochemicals, and oxidative stress
Keywords
SLC7A11, Nrf2, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, radioresistance (biology), ferroptosis, chemoradiotherapy, prognostic factors, lipid peroxidation, cyclooxygenase-2, promoter binding, treatment resistance
MeSH terms
Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Ferroptosis, Esophageal Neoplasms, Head and Neck Neoplasms, Humans, Prognosis, Radiation Tolerance, Amino Acid Transport System y+, NF-E2-Related Factor 2

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