Drug-tolerant persister cancer cells are vulnerable to GPX4 inhibition.

ABSTRACT: Acquired drug resistance prevents cancer therapies from achieving stable and complete responses. Emerging evidence implicates a key role for non-mutational drug resistance mechanisms underlying the survival of residual cancer 'persister' cells. The persister cell pool constitutes a reservoir from which drug-resistant tumours may emerge. Targeting persister cells therefore presents a therapeutic opportunity to impede tumour relapse. We previously found that cancer cells in a high mesenchymal therapy-resistant cell state are dependent on the lipid hydroperoxidase GPX4 for survival. Here we show that a similar therapy-resistant cell state underlies the behaviour of persister cells derived from a wide range of cancers and drug treatments. Consequently, we demonstrate that persister cells acqui

SUBMITTER: Hangauer MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5933935 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature