Elucidation of the mechanism Underlying the promotion of ferroptosis and enhanced antitumor immunity by citrus polymethoxyflavones in CRC cells

• Published in: Frontiers in pharmacology Vol. 16; p. 1571178
• Main Authors: Duan, Yingying, Wu, Yu, Tian, Jiaqi, Yin, Yuqin, Yuan, Zhongwen, Zhu, Wenting, Zhou, Suyue, Li, Chen, Feng, Senling
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 2025
• Subjects: antitumor immunity; citrus polymethoxyflavones; colon cancer; ferroptosis; PD-L1; PD-L1; ferroptosis; antitumor immunity; citrus polymethoxyflavones; colon cancer
• ISSN: 1663-9812; 1663-9812
• DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1571178

Colon cancer is a prevalent condition with a high mortality rate on a global scale. Research has indicated that Citrus polymethoxyflavones (PMFs), a class of flavonoids found in Citrus, possess the potential to demonstrate anti-tumor efficacy. Ferroptosis a form of cell death that is dependent on iron accumulation and lipid peroxidation. Immunotherapy is one of the most commonly used anti-tumor modalities in a clinical setting. Consequently, studies on the pharmacodynamic mechanism of Citrus to determine whether it can modulate tumor immunity through ferroptosis provide new ideas for the clinical treatment of colon cancer. The objective of this study is to ascertain whether Citrus inhibits through ferroptosis and promotes tumor immunity among patients with colon cancer. The inhibitory effect of PMFs on colon cancer was proved by experiment and model. In addition, the occurrence of ferroptosis was detected by measuring key ferroptosis indicators. Bioinformatics analysis was then performed to identify the crossover genes for Citrus polymethoxylflavonoids, colon cancer, and ferroptosis. Finally, key genes were identified by immunocorrelation analysis including WB, Q-PCR and flow cytometry. These experiments were designed to reveal the potential mechanisms of PMFs on ferroptosis and anti-tumor immunity. cell proliferation experiment and the growth of transplanted tumor mice showed that PMFs had inhibitory effect on colon cancer. In addition, the change of ferroptosis index showed that PMFs promoted the occurrence of ferroptosis, followed by Q-PCR and WB detection of and , the key genes screened by bioinformatics, found that PMFs inhibited by down-regulating , thus affecting colon cancer. Flow cytometry showed that CD4 T expression increased and CD8 T cell expression decreased after treatment, suggesting that anti-tumor immunity was activated. It is conceivable that the tumor immune microenvironment may be subject to regulation during the inhibition of colon cancer through ferroptosis in PMFs. The ferroptosis-related gene has been observed to regulate , thereby promoting anti-tumor immunity in colon cancer. However, further investigation is required to ascertain the underlyingprecise mechanisms.