Autophagy recycles cellular components and defends cells against intracellular pathogens. While viruses must evade autophagocytic destruction, some viruses can also subvert autophagy for their own benefit. The ability of influenza A virus (IAV) to evade autophagy depends on the Matrix 2 (M2) ion-channel protein. We show that the cytoplasmic tail of IAV M2 interacts directly with the essential a...

Impairment of autophagic degradation of the ubiquitin- and LC3-binding protein "p62" leads to the formation of cytoplasmic inclusion bodies. However, little is known about the sorting mechanism of p62 to autophagic degradation. Here we identified a motif of murine p62 consisting of 11 amino acids (Ser334-Ser344) containing conserved acidic and hydrophobic residues across species, as an LC3 reco...

Rab24 is a member of the Rab GTPase family, but its function is unclear. Here, we demonstrated increase in Rab24 mRNA in nerve-injured hypoglossal motor neurons of rats. Expression of Rab24 mRNA was also induced in differentiated PC12 cells following proteasome inhibitor (MG132) treatment. MG132 treatment further induced expression of microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3), and accu...

Gap junctions are conductive channels formed by membrane proteins termed connexins, which permit the intercellular exchange of metabolites, ions and small molecules. Previous data demonstrated that traumatic brain injury (TBI) activates autophagy and increases microtubule‑associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) immunostaining predominantly in neurons. Although previous studies have identified ...

Autophagy is the mechanism by which cytoplasmic components and organelles are degraded by the lysosomal machinery in response to diverse stimuli including nutrient deprivation, intracellular pathogens, and multiple forms of cellular stress. Here, we show that the membrane-associated E3 ligase RNF5 regulates basal levels of autophagy by controlling the stability of a select pool of the cysteine ...

The protein microtubule-associated protein 1, light chain 3 (LC3) functions in autophagosome formation and plays a central role in the autophagy pathway. Previously, we found LC3 diffuses more slowly in cells than is expected for a freely diffusing monomer, suggesting it may constitutively associate with a macromolecular complex containing other protein components of the pathway. In the current...

Recent research on tendinopathy has focused on its relationship to programmed cell death. Increased autophagy has been observed in ruptured rotator cuff tendon tissues, suggesting a causal relationship. We investigated whether autophagy occurs in human rotator cuff tenofibroblast death induced by oxidative stress and whether antioxidants protect against autophagic cell death. We used H2 O2 (0.7...

Shigella spp. are intracytosolic gram-negative pathogens that cause disease by invasion and spread through the colonic mucosa, utilizing host cytoskeletal components to form propulsive actin tails. We have previously identified the host factor Toca-1 as being recruited to intracellular S. flexneri and being required for efficient bacterial actin tail formation. We show that at early times durin...

Galangin suppresses proliferation and induces apoptosis and autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, but the precise mechanism is not clear. In this study, we demonstrated that galangin induced autophagy, enhanced the binding of SIRT1-LC3 and reduced the acetylation of endogenous LC3 in HepG2 cells. But this autophagy was inhibited by inactivation of SIRT1 meanwhile, galangin failed t...