Autophagy is an intracellular homeostatic mechanism important for the degradation of waste components from the cytoplasm in acidic lysosomal compartments. Originally, surplus parts of the cytoplasm that acted as targets for autophagy were thought to comprise cellular organelles and proteins, but this has now extended to include a range of pathogens with particular emphasis on intracellular bact...

BACKGROUND Autophagy is a conserved process mediating vacuolar degradation and recycling. Autophagy is highly upregulated upon various stresses and is essential for cell survival in deleterious conditions. Autophagy defects are associated with severe pathologies, whereas unchecked autophagy activity causes cell death. Therefore, to support proper cellular homeostasis, the induction and amplitud...

In this study, we investigated the effect of Solanum nigrum aerial parts (SNAP) on macrophage activation and autophagy in RAW264.7 cells. SNAP increased production immunostimulatory factors phagocytosis TLR4 inhibition blocked SNAP-mediated factors. addition, JNK reduced factors, was by inhibition. activated autophagy. p38 attenuated These findings indicate that may induce TLR4/JNK-mediated TLR...

PURPOSE Autophagy consists of lysosome-dependent degradation of cytoplasmic contents sequestered by autophagic vesicles (AV). The role of autophagy in determining tumor aggressiveness and response to therapy in melanoma was investigated in this study. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Autophagy was measured in tumor biopsies obtained from metastatic melanoma patients enrolled on a phase II trial of temozol...

PURPOSE Understanding the roles of mammalian autophagy in cancer highlights recent advances in the pharmacologic manipulation of autophagic pathways as a therapeutic strategy for cancer. However, autophagy status and corresponding functions in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after therapeutic stress remain to be clarified. This study was to determine whether the autophagic machinery could be act...

Ischemia is known to potently stimulate autophagy in the heart, which may contribute to cardiomyocyte survival. In vitro, transfection with small interfering RNAs targeting Atg5 or Lamp-2 (an autophagy-related gene necessary, respectively, for the initiation and digestion step of autophagy), which specifically inhibited autophagy, diminished survival among cultured cardiomyocytes subjected to a...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is highly resistant to chemotherapy. It has been described as requiring elevated autophagy for growth and inhibiting autophagy has been proposed as a treatment strategy. To date, all preclinical reports and clinical trials investigating pharmacological inhibition of autophagy have used chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, which interfere with lysosomal func...

The autophagy degradation pathway is a cellular pathway that sequesters cargo from the cytosol to autophagosomes that are transferred to lysosomes for degradation or recycled as precursor metabolites. The autophagy pathway allows the removal of damaged organelles/proteins and is emerging as an important aspect of multiple human pulmonary diseases. The autophagy process is important in both the ...

Macroautophagy (autophagy hereafter) is a process that collects cytoplasmic components, particularly mitochondria, and degrades them in lysosomes. In mammalian systems, basal autophagy levels are normally low but are profoundly stimulated by starvation and essential for survival. Cancer cells up-regulate autophagy and can be more autophagy-dependent than most normal tissues. Genetic deficiency ...

Autophagy is a homeostatic mechanism of lysosomal degradation. Defective autophagy has been linked to various disorders such as impaired control of pathogens and neurodegeneration. Autophagy is regulated by a complex array of signaling pathways that act upstream of autophagy proteins. Little is known about the role of altered regulatory signaling in disorders associated with defective autophagy...