Recent progress in the role of autophagy in neurological diseases
Tian Meng,
Shiyin Lin,
Haixia Zhuang,
Haofeng Huang,
Zhengjie He,
Yongquan Hu,
Qing Gong,
Du Feng
Affiliations
Tian Meng
State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University; Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, China.
Shiyin Lin
State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University; Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, China.
Haixia Zhuang
State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University; Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, China.
Haofeng Huang
Institute of Neurology, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Age-Related Cardiac-Cerebral Vascular Disease, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China.
Zhengjie He
State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University; Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, China.
Yongquan Hu
State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University; Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, China.
Qing Gong
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, GMU-GIBH Joint School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, People’s Republic of China.
Du Feng
State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University; Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, China.
Autophagy (here refers to macroautophagy) is a catabolic pathway by which large protein aggregates and damaged organelles are first sequestered into a double-membraned structure called autophagosome and then delivered to lysosome for destruction. Recently, tremendous progress has been made to elucidate the molecular mechanism and functions of this essential cellular metabolic process. In addition to being either a rubbish clearing system or a cellular surviving program in response to different stresses, autophagy plays important roles in a large number of pathophysiological conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, and especially neurodegenerative disorders. Here we review recent progress in the role of autophagy in neurological diseases and discuss how dysregulation of autophagy initiation, autophagosome formation, maturation, and/or autophagosome-lysosomal fusion step contributes to the pathogenesis of these disorders in the nervous system.
