Autophagy: a cell repair mechanism that retards ageing and age-associated diseases and can be intensified pharmacologically.
The process of ageing denotes a post-maturational deterioration of cells and organisms with the passage of time, an increased vulnerability to challenges and prevalence of age-associated diseases, and a decreased ability to survive. Causes may be found in an enhanced production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative damage and not completed housekeeping, with an accumulation of altered ROS-hypergenerating organelles in older cells. It has been shown that autophagy is the only tier of defence against the accumulation of effete mitochondria and peroxisomes; that functioning of autophagy declines with increasing age and determinates cell and individual lifespan; that autophagy can be intensified by drugs; and that the pharmacological intensification of autophagy may be a big step towards retardation of ageing and prevention and therapy of age-associated diseases including neurodegeneration.
Bergamini
Ettore
E
Centro di Ricerca Interdipartimentale di Biologia e Patologia dell'Invecchiamento, Via Roma 55, 56126 Pisa, Italy. ebergami@med.unipi.it
D000375:Aging / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy / Q000187:drug effects; D016922:Cellular Senescence / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000473:pathology