Butyrate reverses ferroptosis resistance in colorectal cancer by inducing c-Fos-dependent xCT suppression

Ferroptosis has emerged to be a promising approach in cancer therapies; however, colorectal cancer (CRC) is relatively insensitive to ferroptosis. Exactly how the gut microenvironment impacts the ferroptotic sensitivity of CRC remains unknown. Herein, by performing metabolomics, we discovered that butyrate concentrations were significantly decreased in CRC patients. Butyrate supplementation sensitized CRC mice to ferroptosis induction, showing great in vivo translatability. Particularly, butyrate treatment reduced ferroptotic resistance of cancer stem cells. Mechanistically, butyrate inhibited xCT expression and xCT-dependent glutathione synthesis. Moreover, we identified c-Fos as a novel xCT suppressor, and further elucidated that butyrate induced c-Fos expression via disrupting class I HDAC activity. In CRC patients, butyrate negatively correlated with tumor xCT expression and positively correlated with c-Fos expression. Finally, butyrate was found to boost the pro-ferroptotic function of oxaliplatin (OXA). Immunohistochemistry data showed that OXA non-responders exhibited higher xCT expression compared to OXA responders. Hence, butyrate supplementation is a promising approach to break the ferroptosis resistance in CRC. [Display omitted] •Butyrate increases ferroptosis sensitivity in colorectal cancer by suppressing xCT expression.•C-Fos protein was identified as a novel xCT repressor.•Butyrate alters the chromatin accessibility at FOS promoter by inhibiting class I HDAC activity.•Butyrate breaks the ferroptosis resistance of cancer stem cells.•Butyrate potentiates the therapeutic efficacy of oxaliplatin.