Copper-based anticancer activity

Alongside collaborators at Durham University, the Lord Research Group has discovered copper-based compounds that not only exhibit high anticancer activity but also localise in the endoplasmic reticulum—an unusual finding for metal-based drugs.

Copper-based compounds offer several advantages over platinum-based chemotherapeutics due to their greater bioavailability and reduced systemic toxicity. Notably, their distinct intracellular mechanisms of action enable them to address some of the limitations associated with platinum drugs, including improved selectivity toward cancer cells and effectiveness against platinum-resistant tumours.

In this new study, alongside Dr James Walton and his team at Durham University, Dr Rianne Lord and her team from the University of Warwick have developed a series of new copper-based compoundsthat show remarkable promise in cancer treatment. These compounds are simple to produce, cost-effective, and demonstrateup to 100 times greater toxicity toward cancer cells when compared to the widely used platinum drug cisplatin.

The researchers found that these copper compounds generate significantly higher levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which likely contribute to the increased cancer cell death observed. By attaching an organic fluorescent dye (BODIPY) to the copper complex, the team was also able to track the compound’s movement within cells using confocal microscopy (Figure). Remarkably, this revealed the first copper pyrithione complex to localise within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER).

This discovery represents an exciting advance in the field of metal-based drug design. Targeting previously unexplored sites such as the ER could deepen our understanding of how copper-based drugs work andopen new pathways for creating more effective cancer treatmentsthat overcome the limitations of current therapies.

For the scientific details, read Copper pyrithione complexes with endoplasmic reticulum localisation showing anticancer activity via ROS generation in Chem. Sci., 2025, Advance Article, doi: 10.1039/D4SC06628F