Protein S-glutathionylation confers cell resistance to ferroptosis

Ferroptosis is a type of cell death that is strongly associated with the cellular redox state. Glutathione is the key to buffering lipid peroxidation in ferroptosis and can also modify proteins by S-glutathionylation under oxidative stress. Here, we showed that the strong associations among glutathione pools, protein S-glutathionylation, and susceptibility to ferroptosis existed broadly in ferroptosis induced by erastin or acetaminophen. Deficiency of CHAC1, a glutathione-degrading enzyme, led to decreased glutathione pools and reduced protein S-glutathionylation, improved liver function and attenuated hepatocyte ferroptosis upon acetaminophen challenge, which could be retarded by CHAC1 overexpression. We conducted quantitative redox proteomics in primary mouse hepatocytes to identify glutathione pool-sensitive S-glutathionylated proteins and found that S-glutathionylation is required to maintain the function of ADP-ribosylation factor 6 (ARF6). Our data suggest that aberrant ARF6 S-glutathionylation increases the labile iron pool by delaying the recycling of transferrin receptors, thereby promoting ferroptosis. Our study reveals the importance of protein S-glutathionylation in conferring cell resistance to ferroptosis.