A synthesized olean-28,13β-lactam targets YTHDF1-GLS1 axis to induce ROS-dependent metabolic crisis and cell death in pancreatic adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) is a severe malignant with a 5-year survival rate of approximately 9%. Oleanolic acid is a well-known natural triterpenoid which exhibits pharmacological activities. We previously synthesized a series of oleanolic acid derivatives and evaluated the tumor-suppressive activity of olean-28,13β-lactam (B28) in prostate cancer. However, the detailed mechanism remains to be understood. METHODS: The anti-tumor activity of B28 in PAAD was confirmed by RTCA, colony formation assay and flow cytometry. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses were performed to analyze the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) obtained by RNA sequencing. The effects of B28 on cell bioenergetics were evaluated by seahorse analyzer. Lenti-virus packaged plasmids were performed to knockdown or overexpress target genes. Alteration of mitochondrial membrane potential, ROS and GSH/GSSG were measured by corresponding detection kits according to the manufacturer's protocol. RESULTS: We evaluated and confirmed the promising anti-tumor activity of B28 in vitro. RNA-seq profile indicated that multiple metabolic pathways were interrupted in B28 treated PAAD cells. Next, we demonstrated that B28 induces cellular bioenergetics crisis to inhibit PAAD cells growth and induce cell death. We further validated that cell cycle arrest, inhibition of cell growth, cell apoptosis and cell bioenergetics disruption were functionally rescued by ROS scavenger NAC. Mechanistically, we found glutamine metabolism was inhibited due to B28 administration. Moreover, we validated that down-regulation of GLS1 contributes to ROS generation and bioenergetics interruption induced by B28. Furthermore, we elucidated that YTHDF1-GLS1 axis is the potential downstream target of B28 to induce PAAD cell metabolic crisis and cell death. Finally, we also confirmed the anti-tumor activity of B28 in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: Current study demonstrates B28 disrupts YTDFH1-GLS1 axis to induce ROS-dependent cell bioenergetics crisis and cell death which finally suppress PAAD cell growth, indicating that this synthesized olean-28,13β-lactam maybe a potent agent for PAAD intervention. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12935-022-02562-6.