Autophagy is a lysosomal degradation pathway that can sequester cytosolic material, including organelles, nonspecifically in a process called nonselective macroautophagy, or target specific protein aggregates designated for destruction in a process called selective autophagy. Autophagy is one mechanism that enables tumor cells to survive stressors in the tumor microenvironment, as well as injur...

Autophagy, a lysosomal self-degradation and recycling pathway, plays dual roles in tumorigenesis. Autophagy deficiency predisposes to cancer, at least in part, through accumulation of the selective autophagy cargo p62, leading to activation of antioxidant responses and tumor formation. While cell growth and autophagy are inversely regulated in most cells, elevated levels of autophagy are observ...

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved catalytic process by which cytoplasmic components including damaged macromolecules and organelles are degraded. The role of autophagy includes adaptive responses to nutrition deprivation or intracellular stimuli. Although autophagosomes were first observed in early 1960s, it was 1990s that autophagy-related genes in yeast were identified and studied. Now...

Autophagy plays a key role in human health and disease, especially in cancer and neurodegeneration. Many autophagy regulators are developed for therapy. Diverse nanomaterials have been reported to induce autophagy. However, the underlying mechanisms and universal rules remain unclear. Here, for the first time, we show a reliable and general mechanism by which nanoparticles induce autophagy and ...

Autophagy is a conserved, intracellular, lysosomal degradation pathway. While mechanistic aspects of this pathway are increasingly well defined, it remains unclear how autophagy modulation impacts normal physiology. It is, however, becoming clear that autophagy may play a key role in regulating developmental pathways. Here we describe for the first time how autophagy impacts stem cell different...

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 ...

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved cell renewal process that depends on phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns(3)P). In metazoans, autophagy is inhibited by PtdIns(3,4,5)P(3), the product of class IA PI3Ks, which mediates the activation of the Akt-TOR kinase cascade. However, the precise function of class IA PI3Ks in autophagy remains undetermined. Class IA PI3Ks are heterodimeric prote...

Phagocytosis and autophagy are two lysosome-mediated cellular degradation pathways designed to eliminate extracellular and intracellular constituents, respectively. Recent studies suggest that these two processes intersect. Several autophagy proteins have been shown to participate in clearance of apoptotic cells, but whether and how the autophagy pathway is involved is unclear. Here we showed t...

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved and intricately regulated cellular process in which damaged or aggregated proteins, organelles, and pathogen-derived components are engulfed by double-membrane structures, termed autophagosomes, and targeted for lysosomal degradation [1]. The autophagic process consists of distinct phases that include nucleation, autophagosome formation, selection of car...

High level apoptosis induced by spinal cord injury (SCI) evokes serious damage because of the loss and dysfunction of motor neurons. Our previous studies showed that inhibition of autophagy evokes the activation of apoptosis. Interestingly, Baicalein, a medicine with anti-apoptosis activity that is derived from the roots of herb Scutellaria baicalensis, largely induces autophagy by activating p...