Unique assembly of carbonylpyridinium and chromene reveals mitochondrial thiol starvation under ferroptosis and novel ferroptosis inducer

-quinone methide from CM-Mit was proposed to label proteins, thus avoiding diffusion out of the mitochondria. Therefore, the accurate spatiotemporal detection of thiol in mitochondria was realized. With this excellent probe, ferroptosis inducers were proved to stimulate thiol starvation in mitochondria for the first time in cancer cells. Moreover, CM-Mit was used to screen a compound library developed in-house and the stemona alkaloid analog SA-11 was shown to induce ferroptosis in various cancer cell lines, including a drug-resistant one.