Ac-ETDK(myr)-AMC

Cuproptosis is a copper-dependent regulated cell-death pathway in which intracellular copper binds lipoylated tricarboxylic acid cycle proteins, especially DLAT-containing pyruvate dehydrogenase complex components, causing lipoylated protein aggregation, iron-sulfur cluster protein loss, proteotoxic stress, and cell death. The pathway is functionally linked to mitochondrial respiration because copper-ionophore sensitivity is higher in cells dependent on oxidative phosphorylation, and FDX1 and protein lipoylation machinery are required for copper-ionophore-induced death. Elesclomol-Cu and related copper-loading strategies are widely used experimental tools to induce cuproptosis, whereas copper chelation with tetrathiomolybdate or genetic suppression of FDX1, LIAS, LIPT1, or DLAT can test pathway dependence. The major unresolved questions are how disease context determines cuproptosis sensitivity, how copper transporters such as SLC31A1/CTR1 and ATP7A/ATP7B regulate the pathway, and whic