Among the tested photosensitizers, zinc phthalocyanine, hypericin, and temoporfin emerged as the top candidates, exhibiting binding energies of - 10.8, - 10.2, and - 9.8 kcal/mol, along with Ki values of 0.012, 0.033, and 0.064 µM, respectively. These compounds outperformed the reference inhibitor ethacrynic acid, which had a binding energy of - 6.6 kcal/mol and a Ki of 14.35 µM. These findings suggest that the dual action of these photosensitizers provides a promising strategy for combating cancer and overcoming treatment resistance.

KYNU can promote GC proliferation, invasion, metastasis, and cuproptosis resistance.This effect is not associated with its metabolite 3-HA, but is achieved by a non classical mechanisms that downregulating the expression of LIAS, a key gene of cuproptosis.

P2, N=52, Active, not recruiting, Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine | Recruiting --> Active, not recruiting | N=102 --> 52

P2, N=25, Recruiting, Mayo Clinic | Not yet recruiting --> Recruiting

Finally, p53 agonists and elesclomol coordinately suppress the growth of cancer in a xenograft mouse model. Altogether, our study uncovers that p53 promotes glycolytic reprogramming and cuproptosis via circFRMD4A and suggests a potential combination strategy against cancers with wild-type p53.

P1/2, N=66, Recruiting, SpectraCure AB | Trial completion date: Dec 2024 --> Dec 2026 | Trial primary completion date: Jul 2024 --> Dec 2025

The classical cuproptosis inducer, ES-Cu (elesclomol plus copper), increases the protein stability of the transcription factor NFE2L2 (also known as NRF2), leading to the upregulation of gene expression of glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit (GCLM) and glutamate-cysteine ligase catalytic subunit (GCLC)...Consequently, genetic inhibition of the NFE2L2-GSH-SLC25A39 pathway enhances cuproptosis-mediated tumor suppression in cell culture and in mouse tumor models. These findings not only reveal distinct mechanisms of GSH in inhibiting cuproptosis and ferroptosis, but also suggest a potential combination strategy to suppress PDAC tumor growth.

Moreover, we observed a positive correlation between sample immune infiltration and sample resistance to elesclomol and panobinostat, whereas a negative correlation was found with venetoclax resistance. Our study enriches the current AML risk stratification and provides guidance for precision medicine in AML.

P1/2, N=19, Active, not recruiting, Roswell Park Cancer Institute | Trial primary completion date: Nov 2023 --> Jul 2024

Furthermore, combining ES@Cu(Ⅱ)-MOF with an anti-programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody converted the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment to an immunogenic microenvironment, thus effectively inhibiting breast tumor growth. Overall, this work provides an innovative approach utilizing nanozymes to facilitate cuproptosis for cancer treatment, which potentially enhances the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitor-based immunotherapy.

Furthermore, silencing YAP or treating with its inhibitor, Verteporfin, attenuated PD-L1 expression induced by Gq/G11 mutations, thereby enhancing T cell activation and T cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Collectively, this study reveals a potential role of Gq/G11 mutations on immune evasion of UM, a new mechanism of Gq/11 mutations-induced tumorigenesis, highlighting Gq/G11 and YAP as potential immunotherapeutic targets and suggesting Verteporfin as an adjuvant for immunotherapy of UM patients with GNAQ or GNA11 mutations.

Foretinib and elesclomol were predicted to exert strong inhibitory effects on SW13 cells by inhibiting the expression of CDH2 and CDH13. These data indicate that CDH2 and CDH13 are promising targets for precise treatment of ACC and may serve as new biomarkers for ACC prognosis.

P1, N=5, Terminated, Roswell Park Cancer Institute | Active, not recruiting --> Terminated; Low accrual

P1, N=5, Active, not recruiting, Roswell Park Cancer Institute | Recruiting --> Active, not recruiting | N=12 --> 5

With Cu-DPPZ-Py+ and Cu-Elesclomol, there is strong evidence that the triggering cuproptosis significantly drives mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) release to activate innate immunity via cyclic GMP-AMP synthase-stimulation of interferon genes (cGAS-STING), which can improve T cell antitumor immunity in vivo. By contrast, it is observed that Cu-DPPZ-Ph treated tumor cells could release intracellular caspase-3, resulting in apoptosis-associated immunosuppression. This study supports insights into how cuproptosis bridges cGAS-STING immune pathways, contributing to the development of cuproptosis-based antitumor immunotherapy.

PNS might be effective for ICH treatment by enhancing lymphangiogenesis and the meningeal lymphatic drainage function, thereby attenuating inflammation and promoting neurological recovery. The role of PNS in regulation of MLVs was investigated for the first time. This study provides a novel insight for PNS in the medical therapy of ICH.

P2, N=24, Not yet recruiting, Aura Biosciences

The ABCG2 inhibitor (fumitremorgin C) and P-gp inhibitor (valspodar) effectively blocked the transport mediated by ABCG2 and P-gp of rose bengal and BPD... In summary, our study provided new knowledge that temoporfin, talaporfin sodium, methylene blue, and indocyanine green are not substrates of ABCG2, P-gp, or MRP1...Rose bengal is a substrate of ABCG2, P-gp, and MRP1. The results presented here indicate ABC transporter substrate status as a possible cause for cellular resistance to photodynamic therapy with rose bengal, redaporfin, and BPD.

P=N/A, N=1000, Not yet recruiting, Karolinska Institutet

The results revealed that the kanamycin, velpatasvir, verteporfin, and temoporfin significantly decreased the binding of LIR to the p62 protein. Finally, we experimentally confirmed that Kanamycin can inhibit autophagy-associated acidic vesicular formation in breast cancer MCF-7 and MDA-MB 231 cells. These repositioned drugs may represent novel autophagy modulators in clinical management, warranting further investigation.

Our results indicated that dinaciclib and alvocidib exhibited similar activity and sensitivity in the neuroendocrine cluster. Also, a lineage factor named KLF5 recognized by inferred transcriptional factors activity could be suppressed by verteporfin.

The study developed an MSS CC cuproptosis model using 50 nM elesclomol and 1 μM CuCl2...Cuproptosis in MSS CC cells enhances the cytotoxicity of CD8+ T cells, which may be achieved through downregulation of the WNT signaling pathway and decreased expression of PD-L1. In the future, drugs that can induce cuproptosis may be a promising approach to improve MSS CC immunotherapy.

Elesclomol inhibits glioblastoma development via inducing cuproptosis, regulated by NFκB1/FDX1 axis.

P1/2, N=53, Recruiting, Roswell Park Cancer Institute | Not yet recruiting --> Recruiting | N=39 --> 53

P1, N=5, Active, not recruiting, Roswell Park Cancer Institute | Suspended --> Active, not recruiting | N=16 --> 5 | Trial completion date: Mar 2025 --> Jan 2026 | Trial primary completion date: Mar 2025 --> Feb 2024

Taken together, there is a great potential for HOXC6 to become a prognosis biomarker and contribute to develop treatment strategies for LUAD patients. Further mechanism exploration and drug development for HOXC6 are needed.

Cell experiments were conducted to verify whether FDX1 was involved in cuproptosis of Caki-1 cells induced by Elesclomol...This study provides compelling evidence that cuproptosis is closely linked to the prognosis of KIRC. FDX1 holds promise as a viable biomarker and therapeutic target for assessing the effectiveness of tumor immunotherapy in KIRC.

Lentivirus overexpressing IL-32 or knocking down Fat atypical cadherin 4 (FAT4), yes-associated protein (YAP) inhibitor-Verteporfin (VP) were used to treat human NP cells, to explore the pathogenesis of IL-32...Mechanistically, the elevation of IL-32 in the inflammatory microenvironment enhanced its interactions with FAT4 and mammalian sterile 20-like kinase1/2 (MST1/2) proteins, prompting MST1/2 phosphorylation, and activating the Hippo/YAP signaling pathway, causing matrix metabolism disorder in NP cells. Our results suggest that IL-32 mediates matrix metabolism disorders in NP cells in the inflammatory micro-environment via the FAT4/MST/YAP axis, providing a theoretical basis for the precise treatment of IDD.

P2, N=22, Completed, Aura Biosciences | Active, not recruiting --> Completed | Trial completion date: May 2025 --> Apr 2024

P1/2, N=220, Recruiting, Bold Therapeutics, Inc. | Active, not recruiting --> Recruiting | Phase classification: P1b/2a --> P1/2 | N=117 --> 220 | Trial completion date: Sep 2024 --> Sep 2026 | Trial primary completion date: Dec 2023 --> Jun 2026

Taken together, our data indicate that GP-2250 exerts profound effects on tumor metabolism and, in combination with PARP inhibitors or bevacizumab, showed promising anti-tumor efficacy. These findings could have implications for the clinical development of GP-2250.

P2, N=102, Recruiting, Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine | Trial completion date: Dec 2024 --> Jun 2025 | Trial primary completion date: May 2024 --> Dec 2024

P2, N=25, Not yet recruiting, Mayo Clinic | Trial completion date: Jul 2029 --> Oct 2029 | Initiation date: Jun 2024 --> Oct 2024 | Trial primary completion date: Jul 2029 --> Oct 2029

P1/2, N=19, Active, not recruiting, Roswell Park Cancer Institute | Recruiting --> Active, not recruiting | N=65 --> 19 | Trial primary completion date: Feb 2030 --> Nov 2023

These results unveil possible novel therapeutic opportunity for BRAFMT CRC. Implications: BOLD-100 induces BRAFMT-dependent replication stress, and targeted strategies against replication stress (eg. by using ATR inhibitors) in combination with BOLD-100 may serve as a potential novel therapeutic strategy for clinically aggressive BRAFMT CRC.

Through the GDSC database, we found that CEMIP expression levels were positively correlated with the IC50 values of several commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs in SCLC cells (cisplatin, gemcitabine, 5-fluorouracil and cyclophosphamide). The combination of the SRC inhibitor dasatinib or the YAP inhibitor verteporfin and cisplatin/etoposide (EP regimen) displayed excellent synergistic antitumor effects on SCLC both in vitro and in vivo. This study demonstrated that targeted therapy against the CEMIP/SRC/YAP complex is a potential strategy for SCLC and provides a rationale for the development of future clinical trials with translational prospects.

We developed a prognostic model constructed by 6 CRRMRs to assess overall survival and immune microenvironment of CRC patients. YTHDC2 might regulate cuproptosis in multiple ways.

Knockdown of TCF4 or pharmacological Wnt/β-catenin blockade increased the sensitivity of CSCs to elesclomol-Cu-induced cuproptosis. These findings reveal a link between copper homeostasis regulated by the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and cuproptosis sensitivity, and suggest a precision medicine strategy for cancer treatment through selective cuproptosis induction.

To trigger cuproptosis, copper-ionophore elesclomol (ES) had to be employed for the copper-transporting-mediated process...This enabled an increased infiltration of cytotoxic CD8+ T cells and consequently enhanced antitumor immune responses for successfully suppressing fibrosarcoma growth. Thus, the copper(II)-based metal-organic framework nano-regulator offered a promising approach for inducing cuproptosis and cuproptosis-stimulated ICD for cancer immunotherapy.

In this study, we prepared 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC)-based solid lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that stably entrap BPD-PC, which resemble the composition of the SpikevaxⓇ Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, and compared them to a DPPC based liposomal formulation (Lipo BPD-PC). In vivo studies revealed that CT1BA5 tumor fluorescence signals from BPD-PC were 2.41-fold higher with Lipo BPD-PC than with LNP BPD-PC; however, no significant difference was observed in tumor tissue selectivity or tumor penetration. As such, we present LNP BPD-PC as a unique and more stable nanoplatform to carry BPD lipid conjugates, such as BPD-PC, with a potential for future photodynamic immune priming studies and multiagent drug delivery.

Finally, we validated the accuracy of FCRLs in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines using induction agents (elesclomol and erastin). Cellular assays revealed significant changes in the expression of AC019080.5, AC145207.5, MIR210HG, and LINC01063 in HCC cell lines following the addition of ferroptosis and cuproptosis inducers. We created a signature of four FCRLs that accurately predicted survival in HCC patients, laid the foundation for basic research related to ferroptosis and cuproptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma, and provided therapeutic recommendations for HCC patients.

Among ruthenium complexes studied as anticancer metallodrugs, NKP-1339, NAMI-A, RM175, and RAPTA-C have already entered clinical trials due to their potent antitumor activity demonstrated in preclinical studies and reduced toxicity in comparison with platinum drugs...Coumarin derivative 2a positively regulated the expression and activity of c-Myc and NPM1 in RKO colon carcinoma cells, while the Ru(II) half-sandwich complex 2cRu induced downregulation of AKT and ERK signaling in PANC-1 cells concomitant with reduced intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species. Altogether, our findings indicated that coumarin-modified half-sandwich Ru(II) complexes held potential as anticancer agents against gastrointestinal malignancies.