Lactate dehydrogenase B noncanonically promotes ferroptosis defense in KRAS-driven lung cancer
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Ferroptosis is an oxidative, non-apoptotic cell death frequently inactivated in cancer, but the underlying mechanisms in oncogene-specific tumors remain poorly understood. Here, we discover that lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) B, but not the closely related LDHA, subunits of active LDH with a known function in glycolysis, noncanonically promotes ferroptosis defense in KRAS-driven lung cancer. Using murine models and human-derived tumor cell lines, we show that LDHB silencing impairs glutathione (GSH) levels and sensitizes cancer cells to blockade of either GSH biosynthesis or utilization by unleashing KRAS-specific, ferroptosis-catalyzed metabolic synthetic lethality, culminating in increased glutamine metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mitoROS). We further show that LDHB suppression upregulates STAT1, a negative regulator of SLC7A11, thereby reducing SLC7A11-dependent GSH metabolism. Our study uncovers a previously undefined mechanism of ferroptosis resistance involving LDH isoenzymes and provides a novel rationale for exploiting oncogene-specific ferroptosis susceptibility to treat KRAS-driven lung cancer.
Authors: Zhao, Liang, Deng, Haibin, Zhang, Jingyi, Zamboni, Nicola, Yang, Haitang, Gao, Yanyun, Yang, Zhang, Xu, Duo, Zhong, Haiqing, van Geest, Geert, Bruggmann, Rémy, Zhou, Qinghua, Schmid, Ralph A., Marti, Thomas M., Dorn, Patrick, Peng, Ren-Wang
Language: English
Subfield: Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6966228752
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