REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Inflammation
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1633711
This article is part of the Research TopicMechanisms of Cell Death in Acute Liver Diseases and the Pathobiology of Sterile Inflammation: The Double-Edged Sword ProblemView all articles
Mechanisms of Copper Metabolism and Cuproptosis: Implications for Liver Diseases
Provisionally accepted
Haoran Chen1
Dongxuan Li1
Huimin Zhang2Meiqi Zhang1
Yumeng Lin3Haibei He1Aijun Liu1Shiming Shen1Yi Wang1
Zhongyu Han3*- 1Chengdu Xinhua hospital affiliated to North Sichuan medical college, Chengdu, China
- 2Anhui Medical College, Anhui, China
- 3Southeast University, Nanjing, China
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Copper is an essential trace element in the human body, involved in various biological processes, including cell metabolism, nerve development, and immune function. Its homeostasis is vital for maintaining normal cellular functions, and disruptions in copper homeostasis can lead to a wide range of diseases. Cuproptosis is a copper ion-dependent form of programmed cell death that leads to abnormal oligomerization of lipoylated proteins and dysfunction of iron-sulfur cluster proteins in the mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, thereby triggering intracellular oxidative stress and proteotoxic stress. In this review, we have delved into the mechanisms of copper metabolism and cuproptosis, as well as their roles in several liver diseases, including Wilson disease (WD), alcoholic liver disease (ALD), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), acute liver injury (ALI), and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), as well as their therapeutic potential.
Keywords: AILI: acetaminophen-induced liver injury, AKT: Protein kinase B, ALD: alcoholic liver disease, ALI: Acute liver injury, APAP: Acetaminophen, AOC3: amine oxidase copper-containing 3, ATOX1: antioxidant 1 copper chaperone, BA: bile acid
Received: 23 May 2025; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Li, Zhang, Zhang, Lin, He, Liu, Shen, Wang and Han. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhongyu Han, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
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