Their study found that cancer cells with high SLC7A11 expression under glucose deficient experience an abnormal accumulation of intracellular disulfide-like molecules such as cysteine, which induces disulfide stress that raises the disulfide bond content in the actin cytoskeleton, causing the actin filaments to contract and the cytoskeletal structure to collapse, resulting in rapid cell death. Here, SLC7A11 is linked to cancer.