Abstract
This review aims to characterize the dualistic role of autophagy in both the suppression and propagation of carcinogenesis. The process of autophagy is responsible for maintaining the delicate balance between the survival and death of a cell, and in the past years it has been studied profoundly. It has been proven that the role of autophagy in maintaining genomic and structural integrity can lead to the suppression of carcinogenesis in its early stages. However, once carcinogenesis has occurred, the process of autophagy may contribute to the survival of tumor cells and, consequently, lead to tumor progression. Additionally, autophagy can modulate the response of the tumor cells to therapy, leading to radiotherapy and chemotherapy resistance or reduced susceptibility to anticancer drugs that propagate autophagy-related cell death. Although the role and course of autophagy are not yet fully known, the essence of it seems to be within our grasp. We have observed the identification of an increasing number of autophagy-related genes (ATG). Therefore, more research concerning its molecular course and potential applications in cancer treatment and prevention needs to be conducted.
Highlights
Autophagy is considered to be the process responsible for keeping a cell in a state of energetic and material well-being,[1,2] and in the beginning it was studied as such
This review aims to characterize the dualistic role of autophagy in both the suppression and propagation of carcinogenesis
It has been proven that the role of autophagy in maintaining genomic and structural integrity can lead to the suppression of carcinogenesis in its early stages
Summary
Autophagy is considered to be the process responsible for keeping a cell in a state of energetic and material well-being,[1,2] and in the beginning it was studied as such. Researchers have distinguished 3 types of autophagy: microautophagy, macroautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA).[6] All types lead to the common end stage of lysosomal degradation of cellular structures and proteins (Fig. 1). Macroautophagy uses unique structures called autophagosomes which are double-membrane vesicles used to deliver the material into lysosomes. In the process of the chaperone-mediated autophagy, chaperones recognize and bind to proteins containing a KFERQ motif. They are translocated across the lysosomal membrane using the LAMP-2A protein, where they are unfolded and degraded.[7,8] Both micro- and macro- autophagy are involved in the degradation of large and small structures, and may be selective or nonselective. Chaperone-mediated autophagy is limited to proteins residing in the cytoplasm and does not apply to larger structures like organelles
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