The cytotoxic mechanisms of disulfiram and copper(ii) in cancer cells

The anticancer activity of disulfiram (DS) is copper(II) (Cu)-depen-dent. This study investigated the anticancer mechanisms of DS/Cuusingin vitrocytotoxicity and metabolic kinetic analysis. Our studyindicates that DS/Cu targets cancer cells by the combination oftwo types of actions: (1) instant killing executed by DS/Cu reactiongenerated reactive oxygen species; (2) delayed cytotoxicity intro-duced by the end product, DDC-Cu. Nanoencapsulation of DSmight shed light on repositioning of DS into cancer treatment.