Cancer cell stiffening via CoQ and UBIAD1 regulates ECM signaling and ferroptosis in breast cancer.

CoQ (Coenzyme Q) is an essential fat-soluble metabolite that plays a key role in cellular metabolism. A less-known function of CoQ is whether it may act as a plasma membrane-stabilizing agent and whether this property can affect cancer development and progression. Here, we show that CoQ and its biosynthetic enzyme UBIAD1 play a critical role in plasmamembrane mechanical properties that are of interest for breast cancer (BC) progression and treatment. CoQ and UBIAD1 increase membrane fluidity leading to increased cell stiffness in BC. Furthermore, CoQ and UBIAD1 states impair ECM (extracellular matrix)-mediated oncogenic signaling and reduce ferroptosis resistance in BC settings. Analyses on human patients and mouse models reveal that UBIAD1 loss is associated with BC development and progression and UBIAD1 expression in BC limits CTCs (circulating tumor cells) survival and lung metastasis formation. Overall, this study reveals that CoQ and UBIAD1 can be further investigated to develop therapeutic interventions to treat BC patients with poor prognosis.