Latest Advances in Exercise-induced Autophagy in Improving Cardiovascular Disease Prognosis

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of human mortality worldwide. Autophagy, a highly conserved metabolic pathway in which organelles and macromolecules are degraded by lysosomes and recycled, is essential for maintaining cardiovascular homeostasis and function, but excessive or insufficient autophagy could result in cardiovascular disease. A growing body of research has demonstrated that exercise is a critical component in preventing onset and improving the prognosis of cardiovascular disease. Exercise regulates autophagy bidirectional and dynamically. In cardiovascular disease caused by excessive or insufficient autophagy, exercise can restore autophagy level and function, delaying the progression of the disease, and improving ventricular remodeling. We reviewed the main mechanisms of autophagy and signaling pathways, as well as the beneficial effect of exercise-induced autophagy on prognosis of cardiovascular disease, and summarized that the mechanism of exercise regulating autophagy in cardiovascular diseases is beneficial to improving prognosis and reducing the incidence of cardiovascular events, but the mechanism for prognosis improvement is still not fully elaborated and needs further study.

Keywords

• cardiovascular diseases|myocardial infarction|exercise|autophagy|review