Copper Cytotoxicity: Cellular Casualties of Noncognate Coordination Chemistry

O’Hern, Charlotte I.Z.; Djoko, Karrera Y.

doi:10.1128/mbio.00434-22

Copper Cytotoxicity: Cellular Casualties of Noncognate Coordination Chemistry

O’Hern, Charlotte I.Z.; Djoko, Karrera Y.

Authors

Charlotte I.Z. O’Hern

Dr Karrera Djoko karrera.djoko@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Abstract

Copper (Cu) is an essential micronutrient for cells, but in excess it is cytotoxic. How Cu is cytotoxic is the subject of recent work by L. Zuily, N. Lahrach, R. Fassler, O. Genest, et al. (mBio 13:e03251-21, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.03251-21). Using Escherichia coli as the model cell, the work shows that anoxic cells accumulate larger amounts of Cu than do oxic cells. Accordingly, Cu is more cytotoxic under anoxic than oxic conditions. The work further shows that Cu cytotoxicity in anoxic bacteria is associated with increased intracellular protein aggregation. The mechanistic details remain as open questions, but these questions highlight that a fundamental understanding of Cu speciation and availability in cells is essential to uncover the cellular consequences of Cu cytotoxicity.

Citation

O’Hern, C. I., & Djoko, K. Y. (2022). Copper Cytotoxicity: Cellular Casualties of Noncognate Coordination Chemistry. mBio, 13(3), e00434-22. https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.00434-22

Journal Article Type	Article
Online Publication Date	May 23, 2022
Publication Date	2022-06
Deposit Date	Jul 26, 2022
Publicly Available Date	Jul 26, 2022
Journal	mBio
Print ISSN	2161-2129
Publisher	American Society for Microbiology
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	13
Issue	3
Article Number	e00434-22
Pages	e00434-22
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.00434-22

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Copyright Statement
© 2022 O’Hern and Djoko. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.