Mixed: human observational, cell and animal research · observational
Sun L et al., Nat Commun 2023; Medicine (Baltimore) 2024; ClinicalTrials.gov 2026
Landmark T01 #1, what came after (2): translation and the literature explosion. Since 2022 'cuproptosis' is a large research field, but direct human evidence is thin. OpenAlex (retrieved 2026-10-18) gives about 4,700-4,900 citing works (cites:W4221115671 filter = 4,749; the record's cited_by_count = 4,872); title.search 'cuproptosis' = 2,332, 'cuproptosis signature' = 370, 'cuproptosis prognostic' = 301 - overwhelmingly bioinformatic gene-signature papers, not experiments. A ClinicalTrials.gov search for 'cuproptosis' (2026-10-18) returns only two studies: NCT07843537 (interventional; MINTER phase 2 open-label, disulfiram 250 mg + copper gluconate 2 mg + radiotherapy in thoracic cancer, not yet recruiting, est. start 2027-03-01, first submitted 2026-09-21, explicitly invoking cuproptosis) and NCT06833918 (observational, acute myocardial infarction, not yet recruiting). No trial has yet tested cuproptosis as a treatment mechanism; note copper-ionophore drugs were tested in people BEFORE the term existed (e.g., the elesclomol + paclitaxel phase 3 melanoma trial SYMMETRY, negative overall, cited in the landmark's Discussion). Concrete follow-ups I read in full: Sun L et al., Nat Commun 2023 (PMC10589265), links copper/cuproptosis to gastric cancer using 48 paired human tumour/normal tissues + cell and mouse-xenograft experiments; and Tao Z et al., Medicine (Baltimore) 2024 (PMC11596713), a small retrospective human study in 76 Wilson-disease patients. So four years on, cuproptosis in humans rests on observational and bioinformatic work.
Source: Copper induces cell death by targeting lipoylated TCA cycle proteins. Tsvetkov P, Coy S, Petrova B, Dreishpoon M, Verma A, Abdusamad M, Rossen J, Joesch-Cohen L, Humeidi R, Spangler RD, Eaton JK, Frenkel E, Kocak M, Corsello SM, Lutsenko S, Kanarek N, Santagata S, Golub TR. Science. 2022;375(6586):1254-1261. doi:10.1126/science.abf0529. PMID 35298263; PMC9273333 (NIH author manuscript). Published 2022-03-17. Erratum: Science 2022;376(6591):eabq4855.
Verified research card EL-LM-T01-01-d-R2