A cuproptosis-associated LncRNA model is a computational (often prognostic or predictive) model that uses the expression levels of long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) associated with cuproptosis—a recently discovered form of copper-induced cell death—to:

Predict clinical outcomes, such as overall survival in cancers like glioma or hepatocellular carcinoma.

Estimate patient response to immunotherapy or other treatment strategies.

Define molecular subtypes of tumors based on their copper metabolism susceptibility.

A novel cuproptosis-associated LncRNA model predicting prognostic and immunotherapy response for glioma Discov Oncol. 2025 Jun 13;16(1):1089. doi:10.1007/s12672-025-02912-6 Bo Lei et al. PMID: 40512434

The title promises a “novel” prognostic model and claims to predict immunotherapy response. In practice, it’s yet another superficial LncRNA panel built from TCGA data using recycled bioinformatics pipelines with no prospective validation or clinical applicability.

• Uses the same LASSO-Cox pipeline seen in countless TCGA-based studies.
• No external validation (e.g., CGGA or institutional dataset).
• No performance metrics beyond p-values and Kaplan-Meier plots.
• No biological validation: no functional assays, no perturbation experiments.

• “Cuproptosis” is used as a buzzword — no measurement of copper, no FDX1/DLAT/LIAS analysis, no experimental link between selected LncRNAs and copper-induced cell death.
• Pure correlation without causation.
• Misleading terminology — this is not a cuproptosis model, but a statistical cluster with cosmetic labeling.

• No stratification by IDH status, MGMT methylation, or histological subtype.
• Glioblastoma and lower-grade gliomas are lumped together, ignoring key biological differences.
• Reduces a complex disease to spreadsheet-level pattern matching.

• Predicts immunotherapy response based on immune infiltration scores (ssGSEA, CIBERSORT) — not real-world response data.
• No validation against PD-L1 status, TMB, or checkpoint inhibitor trials.
• Speculative inference masquerading as translational relevance.

• Institutional approval and informed consent are in place — as they should be.
• But ethical compliance does not equal scientific validity.

• Discov Oncol has become a magnet for template-driven, citation-chasing models that lack mechanistic substance.
• This paper reflects that editorial drift — quick to publish, slow to question.

❝This is not a model. It’s a statistical illusion dressed in scientific terminology, chasing citations by riding the “cuproptosis” trend without grounding in biology or relevance to clinical neuro-oncology.❞

Recommendation: *Reject unless mechanistic insight, external validation, and molecular stratification are provided.*

Cuproptosis is a novel form of regulated cell death triggered by the accumulation of intracellular copper ions. It specifically affects mitochondrial enzymes that require lipoylated cofactors, leading to proteotoxic stress and cell death. It is mechanistically distinct from apoptosis, ferroptosis, and necroptosis.

📊 How is a cuproptosis-associated LncRNA model built? Identification of cuproptosis-related genes: e.g., FDX1, DLAT, LIAS, etc.

Correlation analysis: LncRNAs co-expressed with these genes are identified.

Statistical filtering: Univariate and multivariate Cox regression or LASSO regression are used to select prognostically relevant LncRNAs.

Risk scoring model: Each patient receives a risk score based on the weighted expression of selected LncRNAs.

Validation: The model is tested on independent datasets (e.g., TCGA or CGGA cohorts).

🎯 Applications Stratifying glioma patients into high-risk and low-risk groups.

Guiding personalized immunotherapy.

Revealing copper metabolism pathways relevant to tumor progression.