Autophagy: A Druggable Process.
Macroautophagy (hereafter called autophagy) is a vacuolar, lysosomal pathway for catabolism of intracellular material that is conserved among eukaryotic cells. Autophagy plays a crucial role in tissue homeostasis, adaptation to stress situations, immune responses, and the regulation of the inflammatory response. Blockade or uncontrolled activation of autophagy is associated with cancer, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, autoimmune disease, infection, and chronic inflammatory disease. During the past decade, researchers have made major progress in understanding the three levels of regulation of autophagy in mammalian cells: signaling, autophagosome formation, and autophagosome maturation and lysosomal degradation. As we discuss in this review, each of these levels is potentially druggable, and, depending on the indication, may be able to stimulate or inhibit autophagy. We also summarize the different modulators of autophagy and their potential and limitations in the treatment of life-threatening diseases.
['Morel|Etienne|E|', 'Mehrpour|Maryam|M|', 'Botti|Joëlle|J|', 'Dupont|Nicolas|N|', 'Hamaï|Ahmed|A|', 'Nascimbeni|Anna Chiara|AC|', 'Codogno|Patrice|P|']
D000818:Animals D001343:Autophagy D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic D006801:Humans D008247:Lysosomes D009369:Neoplasms D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases D015398:Signal Transduction D020123:Sirolimus
macroautophagy lysosome activators disease autophagosome inhibitors