ATM orchestrates ferritinophagy and ferroptosis by phosphorylating NCOA4

Ferroptosis is a newly characterized form of programmed cell death, which is driven by the lethal accumulation of lipid peroxides catalyzed by the intracellular bioactive iron. Targeted induction of ferroptotic cell death holds great promise for therapeutic design against other therapy-resistant cancers. To date, multiple post-translational modifications have been elucidated to impinge on the ferroptotic sensitivity. Here we report that the Ser/Thr protein kinase ATM, the major sensor of DNA double-strand break damage, is indispensable for ferroptosis execution. Pharmacological inhibition or genetic ablation of ATM significantly antagonizes ferroptosis. Besides, ATM ablation-induced ferroptotic resistance is largely independent of its downstream target TRP53, as cells defective in both Trp53 and Atm are still more insensitive to ferroptotic inducers than the trp53 single knockout cells. Mechanistically, ATM dominates the intracellular labile free iron by phosphorylating NCOA4, facilitating NCOA4-ferritin interaction and therefore sustaining ferritinophagy, a selective type of macroautophagy/autophagy specifically degrading ferritin for iron recycling. Our results thus uncover a novel regulatory circuit of ferroptosis comprising ATM-NCOA4 in orchestrating ferritinophagy and iron bioavailability. Abbreviations: AMPK: AMP-activated protein kinase; ATM: ataxia telangiectasia mutated; BSO: buthionine sulphoximine; CDKN1A: cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1A (P21); CQ: chloroquine; DFO: deferoxamine; DFP: deferiprone; Fer: ferrostatin-1; FTH1: ferritin heavy polypeptide 1; GPX4: glutathione peroxidase 4; GSH: glutathione; MEF: mouse embryonic fibroblast; NCOA4: nuclear receptor coactivator 4; PFTα: pifithrin-α; PTGS2: prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2; Slc7a11: solute carrier family 7 member 11; Sul: sulfasalazine; TFRC: transferrin receptor; TRP53: transformation related protein 53.