Department of Pathology,The University of Melbourne,Parkville, Victoria 3010,Australia.
Expert Rev Mol Med. 2014 May 22;16:e11. doi: 10.1017/erm.2014.11.
Copper is an essential element in many biological processes. The critical functions associated with copper have resulted from evolutionary harnessing of its potent redox activity. This same property also places copper in a unique role as a key modulator of cell signal transduction pathways. These pathways are the complex sequence of molecular interactions that drive all cellular mechanisms and are often associated with the interplay of key enzymes including kinases and phosphatases but also including intracellular changes in pools of smaller molecules. A growing body of evidence is beginning to delineate the how, when and where of copper-mediated control over cell signal transduction. This has been driven by research demonstrating critical changes to copper homeostasis in many disorders including cancer and neurodegeneration and therapeutic potential through control of disease-associated cell signalling changes by modulation of copper-protein interactions. This timely review brings together for the first time the diverse actions of copper as a key regulator of cell signalling pathways and discusses the potential strategies for controlling disease-associated signalling processes using copper modulators. It is hoped that this review will provide a valuable insight into copper as a key signal regulator and stimulate further research to promote our understanding of copper in disease and therapy.
铜是许多生物过程中的必需元素。与铜相关的关键功能源于其强大的氧化还原活性的进化利用。这种相同的特性也使铜在作为细胞信号转导途径的关键调节剂方面具有独特的作用。这些途径是驱动所有细胞机制的复杂分子相互作用序列，通常与包括激酶和磷酸酶在内的关键酶的相互作用有关，但也包括小分子池的细胞内变化。越来越多的证据开始描绘铜介导的细胞信号转导控制的方式、时间和地点。这是由研究推动的，这些研究表明，在许多疾病（包括癌症和神经退行性变）中，铜动态平衡发生了关键变化，并且通过调节铜-蛋白相互作用来控制与疾病相关的细胞信号变化，具有治疗潜力。本及时的综述首次将铜作为细胞信号通路关键调节剂的多种作用汇集在一起，并讨论了使用铜调节剂控制与疾病相关信号过程的潜在策略。希望本综述能为铜作为关键信号调节剂提供有价值的见解，并激发进一步的研究，以促进我们对铜在疾病和治疗中的理解。
