Chapter 7 - The Role of Autophagy in Cell Death

Abstract

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process responsible for protein degradation and organelle turnover. The literal translation of “autophagy” in Greek, “self-eating,” inclines that autophagy may be a phenomenon of cellular suicide. Indeed, cells undergoing cell death often display marked autophagic features, leading to the coining of the term “autophagic cell death.” However, linking autophagy to cell death is largely circumstantial, and whether it is the primary cause of cell death is intensively under debate. In contrast, autophagy, as a cellular recycling process, is an important protective mechanism against a range of various stress conditions including starvation. Therefore, the dialogue between autophagy and cell death programs influences the physiological homeostasis of cells and tissues. The imbalance between the two pathways is largely related to different human diseases, including cancer. Due to increasing interests in targeting autophagy pathway for different human diseases, molecular mechanisms of the cross talk between autophagy and cell death pathways have achieved major prominence. This chapter aims at summarizing the recent advances on the role of autophagy in cell death.