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Cuproptosis in lung cancer: therapeutic options and prognostic models

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Abstract

Lung cancer (LC) is a serious threat to mankind. The survival of LC patients is still poor despite the enormous efforts that have been made to develop novel treatments. A copper-dependent cell death termed cuproptosis is distinct from known programmed cell death (PCD). Cuproptosis is induced by the disruption of the binding of copper to lipoylated tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle proteins of mitochondrial respiratory chains. Potential approaches for treating LC are inducing cell cuproptosis and targeting cell copper death mechanisms. Thus, in this review, we summarize the systemic and cellular metabolic processes of copper. We highlight the possible therapeutic options of employing copper ionophores and chelators for inducing cuproptosis. Moreover, we summarize the prognostic models based on cuproptosis-related genes (CRGs) to identify promising biomarkers for tumor diagnosis and therapy. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of CRGs-based prognostic models and promising therapeutic options for cuproptosis induction in LC.

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Abbreviations

ALDH2:

Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2

ATP7A:

ATPase copper transporting alpha

ATP7B:

ATPase copper transporting beta

BP:

Biological processes

MP:

Molecular processes

CDKN2A:

Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2 A

CRGs:

Cuproptosis-related genes

CuO-NPs:

Copper oxide nanoparticles

DLAT:

Drolipoamide S-acetyltransferase

DLD:

Dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase

FDX1:

Ferredoxin 1

GEO:

Gene expression omnibus

GLS:

Glutaminase

GO:

Gene ontology

GTEx:

Genotype-tissue expression

HIF-1:

Hypoxia-inducible factor-1

IL-8:

Interleukin-8

KEGG:

Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes

LC:

Lung cancer

LIAS:

Lipoic acid synthetase

LIPT1:

Lipoyltransferase 1

LOX:

Lysyl oxidase

MTF1:

Metal regulatory transcription factor 1

PCD:

Programmed cell death

PDC:

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex

PDHA1:

Pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 subunit alpha 1

PDHB:

Pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 subunit beta

PD-L1:

Programmed death ligand 1

PLGA:

Poly lactic-co-glycolic acid

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

SLC31A1:

Solute carrier family 31 member 1

TCA:

Tricarboxylic acid

TCGA:

The cancer genome atlas database

UCSC:

University of california santa cruz

VEGF:

Vascular endothelial growth factor

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Rohil Jawed

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Huma Bhatti

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  1. Rohil Jawed
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RJ: Conceptualization, writing, and illustrating. HB: Review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rohil Jawed.

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Jawed, R., Bhatti, H. Cuproptosis in lung cancer: therapeutic options and prognostic models. Apoptosis (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10495-024-01978-x

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