Human parvovirus B19 (B19) is a well-known pathogenic agent which causes apoptosis in erythrocyte lineage cells. Here, we provide the first evidence that mitochondrial autophagy is specifically found in the B19-infected cells. The protein expression ratio for LC3-II/LC3-I increased significantly in infected cells, indicating possible involvement of cellular autophagy in the infection process. I...

Atg8 is conjugated to phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) by ubiquitin-like conjugation reactions. Atg8 has at least two functions in autophagy: membrane biogenesis and target recognition. Regulation of PE conjugation and deconjugation of Atg8 is crucial for these functions in which Atg4 has a critical function by both processing Atg8 precursors and deconjugating Atg8-PE. Here, we report the crystal ...

BACKGROUND Autophagy is a highly regulated process involving the bulk degradation of cytoplasmic macromolecules and organelles in mammalian cells via the lysosomal system. Dysregulation of autophagy is implicated in the pathogenesis of many neurodegenerative diseases and integrity of the autophagosomal - lysosomal network appears to be critical in the progression of aging. Our aim was to survey...

Autophagy is protective in cadmium (Cd)-induced oxidative damage. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been shown to induce autophagy in a process requiring the unfolded protein response signalling pathways. Cd treatment significantly increased senescence in neuronal cells, which was aggravated by 3-MA or silencing of Atg5 and abolished by rapamycin. Cd increased expression of ER stress regula...

Autophagy is an intrinsic host defense system that recognizes and eliminates invading bacterial pathogens. We have identified microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), a hallmark of autophagy, as a binding partner of phospholipase C-related catalytically inactive protein (PRIP) that was originally identified as an inositol trisphosphate-binding protein. Here, we investigated the inv...

Saliva from subjects with amebic liver abscess (ALA), acute amebic colitis, asymptomatic infection with Entamoeba histolytica or Entamoeba dispar, and uninfected controls was tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the presence of E. histolytica galactose-inhibitable lectin antigen and salivary immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies to a recombinant cysteine-rich lectin-derived protein...