β-Amyloid and Glutathione Dysregulation Cooperatively Drive Lipid Peroxidation and Ferroptosis in Neuron-Like Cells
-expressing cells to cell death, accompanied by increased plasma membrane lipid peroxidation, elevated malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) levels, and enhanced lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. This cell death was not prevented by the pan-caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK but was effectively rescued by the ferroptosis inhibitors ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1) and liproxstatin-1 (Lip-1), indicating a ferroptotic mechanism. Similar ferroptotic responses were observed when Aβ oligomers were combined with intracellular GSH depletion. Mechanistically, Aβ and GSH depletion synergistically increased transferrin receptor-1 expression and intracellular iron levels while markedly suppressing glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), a central regulator of ferroptosis. Importantly, inhibition of autophagy with bafilomycin A1 restored GPX4 expression and rescued cells from ferroptotic death, suggesting that autophagy-mediated GPX4 degradation contributes to this process. Collectively, our findings demonstrate that GSH dysregulation synergizes with Aβ to induce lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis in neuron-like cells. These results identify impaired redox homeostasis as a critical driver of neuronal vulnerability in AD and suggest that preserving GSH levels or targeting ferroptotic pathways may offer promising therapeutic strategies for neurodegeneration.
Authors
- Caili Hao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6743-6222)
- Zongbo Wei (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6530-8968)
- Kazi Rafsan Radeen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5977-6028)
- Xingjun Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6477-4465)
Institutions
- Augusta University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-04-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.15.718809
- Primary Topic
- Ferroptosis and cancer prognosis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00