Disulfidoptosis: A New Key to Unlocking Cancer Treatment

Abstract

The metabolic properties of disulfidoptosis targeting cancer cells have become a new key to unlocking cancer treatment's lock. Conventional cancer therapies aim to kill tumor cells through apoptosis, but cell death is carried out by a network of cascading enzymes. Malignant cells can evade the death process by downregulating key enzymes or inhibiting death-inducing triggers, leading to cancer persistence and recurrence of cancer cells that are resistant to conventional therapies and immune escape, which has compelled researchers to explore new therapeutic avenues. Disulfidoptosis is triggered by the accumulation of excessive intracellular disulfides in cells with high expression of solute carrier family 7 member 11 (SLC7A11) under glucose starvation conditions, which simultaneously induces the breakage of intracellular disulfide bonds and leads to protein malfunction, thereby triggering cancer cell death. However, there is no comprehensive account of disulfidoptosis application in cancer therapy. This review comprehensively summarizes the mechanism of disulfidoptosis for cancer treatment, which provides new ideas for cancer treatment.