Lithium: from mood stabilizer to pivotal regulator of health - recent advances in lithium-based biomedicine

Highlights 1. Lithium isotopic enable psychiatric differentiation and reveal dysregulated Mg metabolism in pathological states.2. Lithium broadens therapeutic horizons by mitigating Alzheimer's pathogenesis, reversing pulmonary fibrosis, and augmenting antitumor immunity.3. Excessive lithium exposure triggers reproductive toxicity by inducing accumulation-dependent cuproptosis in placental trophoblasts.4. As a multi-level regulator, lithium orchestrates neuro-immune-microbial systems by stabilizing essential trace element homeostasis (Mg, Fe, Cu).