TY - JOUR
T1 - Copper in infectious disease
T2 - Using both sides of the penny
AU - Culbertson, Edward M.
AU - Culotta, Valeria C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by United States National Institutes of Health grants RO1 AI119949, R35 GM136644 and RO1 GM50016 (VCC) and F31 DK111114 (EMC). The funding source(s) had no involvement in study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, and in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by United States National Institutes of Health grants RO1 AI119949 , R35 GM136644 and RO1 GM50016 (VCC) and F31 DK111114 (EMC). The funding source(s) had no involvement in study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, and in the decision to submit the article for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - The transition metal Cu is an essential micronutrient that serves as a co-factor for numerous enzymes involved in redox and oxygen chemistry. However, Cu is also a potentially toxic metal, especially to unicellular microbes that are in direct contact with their environment. Since 400 BCE, Cu toxicity has been leveraged for its antimicrobial properties and even today, Cu based materials are being explored as effective antimicrobials against human pathogens spanning bacteria, fungi, and viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 agent of the 2019–2020 pandemic. Given that Cu has the double-edged property of being both highly toxic and an essential micronutrient, it plays an active and complicated role at the host-pathogen interface. Humans have evolved methods of incorporating Cu into innate and adaptive immune processes and both sides of the penny (Cu toxicity and Cu as a nutrient) are employed. Here we review the evolution of Cu in biology and its multi-faceted roles in infectious disease, from the viewpoints of the microbial pathogens as well as the animal hosts they infect.
AB - The transition metal Cu is an essential micronutrient that serves as a co-factor for numerous enzymes involved in redox and oxygen chemistry. However, Cu is also a potentially toxic metal, especially to unicellular microbes that are in direct contact with their environment. Since 400 BCE, Cu toxicity has been leveraged for its antimicrobial properties and even today, Cu based materials are being explored as effective antimicrobials against human pathogens spanning bacteria, fungi, and viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 agent of the 2019–2020 pandemic. Given that Cu has the double-edged property of being both highly toxic and an essential micronutrient, it plays an active and complicated role at the host-pathogen interface. Humans have evolved methods of incorporating Cu into innate and adaptive immune processes and both sides of the penny (Cu toxicity and Cu as a nutrient) are employed. Here we review the evolution of Cu in biology and its multi-faceted roles in infectious disease, from the viewpoints of the microbial pathogens as well as the animal hosts they infect.
KW - Copper
KW - Fungi
KW - Infection
KW - Micronutrient
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U2 - 10.1016/j.semcdb.2020.12.003
DO - 10.1016/j.semcdb.2020.12.003
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33423931
AN - SCOPUS:85099131007
SN - 1084-9521
VL - 115
SP - 19
EP - 26
JO - Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
JF - Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology
ER -