Editing Autophagy

[[Key concepts in ALS]]

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy Wikipedia page]

Autophagy allows the orderly degradation and recycling of cellular components.
* In macroautophagy, targeted cytoplasmic constituents are isolated from the rest of the cell within a double-membraned vesicle known as an autophagosome.
* The autophagosome eventually fuses with lysosomes and the contents are degraded and recycled. 
* Three forms of autophagy are also commonly described: macroautophagy, microautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA). 
* In disease, autophagy has been seen as an adaptive response to stress, which promotes survival, whereas in other cases it appears to promote cell death and morbidity. 
* In the extreme case of starvation, the breakdown of cellular components promotes cellular survival by maintaining cellular energy levels.

''The most prevalent pathological features of many neurodegenerative diseases are the aggregation of misfolded proteins and the loss of certain neuronal populations. Autophgy, as major intracellular machinery for degrading aggregated proteins and damaged organelles, has been reported to be involved in the occurance of pathological changes in many neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In this review, we summarized most recent research progress in this topic and provide a new perspective regarding autophagy regulation on the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Finally, we further discussed the signaling molecules in autophagy-related pathways as therapeutic targets for the treatment of these diseases. ''' {{#pmid:28703923|guo2017}}

== References ==


[[Category:Key concepts]]