Network Toxicology and Transcriptomic Analyses Reveal Ferroptosis-Related Neurotoxicity of Rotenone as an Environmental Hazardous Compound.

Background

Rotenone is a widely used environmental pesticide, and epidemiological studies suggest that exposure is associated with an increased risk of Parkinson's disease (PD); however, the molecular toxicological basis of this association remains incompletely defined. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent, lipid peroxidation-driven form of regulated cell death that is relevant to PD and other neurodegenerative disorders. In this study, we provide disease-contextual functional evidence linking ferroptosis to rotenone-induced PD-like neurotoxicity.

Methods

We combined network toxicology, human PD substantia nigra transcriptomic analysis using GSE7621, and SH-SY5Y cell-based validation. Rotenone-associated targets were predicted and analyzed for ferroptosis-related enrichment, PD transcriptomic signatures were used for disease-contextual candidate prioritization, and selected findings were validated using qPCR, CCK-8, Western blotting, C11-BODIPY lipid peroxidation staining, and transmission electron microscopy.

Results

By further integrating a human PD substantia nigra transcriptomic dataset (GSE7621), we prioritized an 11-gene, PD-contextualized ferroptosis-associated candidate module (LIPF, FAM170A, MCHR1, IL17A, MYB, GFAP, ARMC3, GKN1, GATA3, IL17F, and TEKT1). In SH-SY5Y cells, rotenone exposure consistently upregulated this candidate transcriptional module, and this induction was broadly attenuated by the ferroptosis inhibitor ferrostatin-1 (Fer-1). In parallel, orthogonal functional assays supported an iron- and lipid peroxidation-driven injury state under rotenone exposure that was suppressible by ferroptosis inhibition and iron chelation. Finally, we further performed an exploratory drug-gene association screen to prioritize clinically available candidates, and a limited qPCR check suggested that several selected compounds partially attenuated representative hub-gene induction under rotenone exposure.

Conclusions

Collectively, these findings provide disease-contextual and experimentally supported evidence linking rotenone exposure to ferroptosis-associated neurotoxicity, and identify a ferroptosis-responsive transcriptional module for future hypothesis-driven mechanistic investigation.