Multifaceted Roles of Copper ions in Anticancer Nanomedicine.

Abstract

The significantly increased copper level in tumor tissues and serum indicates the close association of copper ions with tumor development, making copper ions be attractive targets in the development of novel tumor treatment methods. The advanced nanotechnology developed in the past decades provides great potential for tumor therapy, among which Cu-based nanotherapeutic systems have received greater attention. In this review, the multifaceted roles of copper ions in cancer progression would be summarized and the recent advances in the copper-based nanostructures or nanomedicines for different kinds of tumor therapies including copper depletion therapy, copper-based cytotoxins, copper ions-based chemodynamic therapy and its combination with other treatments and copper ions-induced ferroptosis and cuproptosis activation would be discussed. Furthermore, the perspectives for the further development of copper ions-based nanomedicines for tumor therapy and clinic translation are presented by the authors. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.