Dysregulation of ferroptosis may involve in the development of non-small cell lung cancer in Xuanwei area

Abstract Background The Xuanwei area of Yunnan Province, China is one of the regions with the highest incidence of lung cancer in the world. Local residents use bituminous coal as fuel for cooking and heating, which causes serious indoor air pollution. After the local government carried out furnace and stove reform work, the high incidence of lung cancer in residents continued. We herein wonder if there are specific mechanisms at protein level for the development of lung cancer in the area. Methods We investigated the changes of protein profiling in tumor of the patients from Xuanwei area. Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) were employed to screen the differential proteins between carcinoma and para-carcinoma tissues. Results We identified a total of 422 differentially-expressed proteins, among which 162 proteins were significantly upregulated and 260 were downregulated compared to para-carcinoma tissues. Many of the differentially-expressed proteins were related to ECM-receptor interaction, focal adhesion, PI3K/AKT pathway and ferroptosis. Further experiments on the two differential proteins, TXN2 and HP, showed that the change of their expressions could make the lung cancer cell lines more resistant to erastin or RSL-induced ferroptosis in vitro , and promote the growth of tumor in nude mice. Conclusion This study revealed that aberrant regulation of ferroptosis may involve in the development of lung cancer in Xuanwei area.