Autophagy in Disease - Protein Misfolding and Cellular Stress in Disease and Aging - page 76

Chapter 5
Autophagy in Disease
Dalibor Mijaljica, Mark Prescott, and Rodney J. Devenish
Abstract
Autophagy is a cellular quality control process by which cytoplasmic constituents including proteins,
protein aggregates, organelles, and invading pathogens can be delivered to lysosomes for degradation.
Autophagy is activated in response to changes in the internal status of the cell and/or changes in the
extracellular environment. It is therefore essential for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and for an
efficient response to cellular stresses. As such autophagy has been implicated either in the pathogenesis,
or response to a wide variety of diseases, bacterial, and viral infections, and ageing.
Key words: Autophagy, Degradation, Disease, Pathophysiology, Stress
1. Introduction
Autophagy is a highly conserved process of quality control
occurring inside cells by which cytoplasmic constituents including
long-lived proteins, protein aggregates, organelles, and invading
pathogens can be delivered to lysosomes for degradation and
subsequent recycling of the degradation products. Autophagy is
activated in response to changes in the internal status of the cell
and/or changes in the extracellular milieu. It is therefore essential
for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis and for an efficient
response to cellular stresses. Autophagy has been implicated either in
the pathogenesis or response to a wide variety of diseases, including
cancer, neurodegeneration, myopathies, liver, and heart disease,
diabetes, as well as bacterial and viral infections, and ageing.
In this chapter, we will first highlight the basic mechanisms
and regulation of autophagic processes and then secondly discuss
autophagy in human disease. Many aspects that we touch on have