Alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR) has been reported to alleviate neuroinflammation. Here, we aimed to determine the role of autophagy in α7nAChR-mediated inhibition of neuroinflammation and its underlying mechanism. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice and lipopolysaccharide-stimulated BV2 microglia were used as in vivo and in vitro models of neuroinflammation, r...

Arabinofuranosyl cytidine (AraC) is an analog of deoxycytidine used as anticancer drug for leukemic patients. The effective dose always produces severe complications. present study investigated the modulation autophagy and its impact on cytotoxicity AraC toward murine myelogenous leukemia cells (M-NFS-60). Autophagy was inhibited by NH4Cl or Bafilomycin A1 enhanced amino acid starvation, glucos...

Radiation-induced autophagy mediates susceptibility to radiation [1]. However, autophagy is a multifaceted process. Herein, 2 aspects of autophagy, induction of autophagy or changes in autophagic flux, in radiation sensitivity were investigated. Relying on a systems-based approach and adding to a large, data dense morphome database [2, 3], we mined for complex cellular information on autophagy ...

Autophagy recently has been shown to be involved in normal hepatic function and in pathological conditions such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Adrenergic signalling also is an important regulator of hepatic metabolism and function. However, currently little is known about the potential role of adrenergic signaling on hepatic autophagy, and whether the β-adrenergic receptor itself may be ...

Growing evidence has demonstrated a neuroprotective role of autophagy in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Thus, autophagy has been regarded as a potential therapeutic target, attracting increasing interest in pharmaceutical autophagy modulation by small molecules. We designed a two-cycle screening strategy on the basis of imaging high-throughout screening (HTS) and cellular toxicity assay, and have id...

It has become evident that caspases function in nonapoptotic cellular processes in addition to the canonical role for caspases in apoptotic cell death. We recently demonstrated that the Drosophila effector caspase Dcp-1 localizes to the mitochondria and positively regulates starvation-induced autophagic flux during mid-oogenesis. Loss of Dcp-1 leads to elongation of the mitochondrial network, i...

Zinc protoporphyrin IX (ZnPPIX), a heme oxygenase-1 enzyme inhibitor, has been reported to induce apoptosis and to have antitumor properties. Here, we report that ZnPPIX triggers autophagy and causes defective autophagy flux in HeLa cells. Autophagosome formation was independent of Beclin 1, indicating non-canonical autophagy activity in ZnPPIX-treated cells. Furthermore, western blot results i...

Cellular organelles and proteins are degraded and recycled through autophagy, a process during which vesicles known as autophagosomes fuse with lysosomes. Altered autophagy occurs in various diseases, but its role in preterm labor (PTL) is unknown. We investigated the role of autophagic flux in two mouse models of PTL compared to controls: 1) inflammation-induced PTL (IPTL), induced by toll-lik...

Autophagy flux deficiency is closely related to the development of hepatic steatosis. Transcription factor E3 (TFE3) is reported to be a crucial gene that regulates autophagy flux and lysosome function. Therefore, we investigated the role of TFE3 in a cell model of hepatic steatosis. We constructed L02 hepatocyte lines that stably over-expressed or knocked down the expression of TFE3. Subsequen...