A Combined Drug Treatment That Reduces Mitochondrial Iron and Reactive Oxygen Levels Recovers Insulin Secretion in NAF-1-Deficient Pancreatic Cells

• Published in: Antioxidants Vol. 10; no. 8; p. 1160
• Main Authors: Karmi, Ola, Sohn, Yang-Sung, Marjault, Henri-Baptiste, Israeli, Tal, Leibowitz, Gil, Ioannidis, Konstantinos, Nahmias, Yaakov, Mittler, Ron, Cabantchik, Ioav Z, Nechushtai, Rachel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 21.07.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Acids; Antibodies; Apoptosis; Ataxia; Autophagy; Beta cells; Cancer; Cell growth; Diabetes mellitus; Experiments; Ferroptosis; Glutathione; Hemochromatosis; Insulin; Insulin secretion; iron hemostasis; Laboratories; Lipid peroxidation; Lipids; Metabolism; Mitochondria; Mutation; NAF-1 (CISD2); oxidative stress; Pancreas; Plasmids; Proteins; Reactive oxygen species; Reagents; Secretion; Structure-function relationships; Wolfram syndrome type 2 (WFS-T2); United States > US; iron hemostasis; ferroptosis; Wolfram syndrome type 2 (WFS-T2); insulin secretion; NAF-1 (CISD2); oxidative stress
• ISSN: 2076-3921; 2076-3921
• DOI: 10.3390/antiox10081160

Decreased insulin secretion, associated with pancreatic β-cell failure, plays a critical role in many human diseases including diabetes, obesity, and cancer. While numerous studies linked β-cell failure with enhanced levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the development of diabetes associated with hereditary conditions that result in iron overload, e.g., hemochromatosis, Friedreich's ataxia, and Wolfram syndrome type 2 (WFS-T2; a mutation in , encoding the [2Fe-2S] protein NAF-1), underscores an additional link between iron metabolism and β-cell failure. Here, using NAF-1-repressed INS-1E pancreatic cells, we observed that NAF-1 repression inhibited insulin secretion, as well as impaired mitochondrial and ER structure and function. Importantly, we found that a combined treatment with the cell permeant iron chelator deferiprone and the glutathione precursor N-acetyl cysteine promoted the structural repair of mitochondria and ER, decreased mitochondrial labile iron and ROS levels, and restored glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Additionally, treatment with the ferroptosis inhibitor ferrostatin-1 decreased cellular ROS formation and improved cellular growth of NAF-1 repressed pancreatic cells. Our findings reveal that suppressed expression of NAF-1 is associated with the development of ferroptosis-like features in pancreatic cells, and that reducing the levels of mitochondrial iron and ROS levels could be used as a therapeutic avenue for WFS-T2 patients.