title: Huntington's disease: degradation of mutant huntingtin by autophagy.
abstract: Autophagy is a nonspecific bulk degradation pathway for long-lived cytoplasmic proteins, protein complexes, or damaged organelles. This process is also a major degradation pathway for many aggregate-prone, disease-causing proteins associated with neurodegenerative disorders, such as mutant huntingtin in Huntington's disease. In this review, we discuss factors regulating the degradation of mutant huntingtin by autophagy. We also report the growing list of new drugs/pathways that upregulate autophagy to enhance the clearance of this mutant protein, as autophagy upregulation may be a tractable strategy for the treatment of Huntington's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, Addenbrooke's Hospital, UK. ss457@cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Sovan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Rubinsztein
mesh_terms: D001343:Autophagy / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D007294:Inositol / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D018020:Lithium Compounds / Q000494:pharmacology; D009154:Mutation; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D020123:Sirolimus / Q000494:pharmacology; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases; D014199:Trehalose / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: C086055:HTT protein, human; D000071058:Huntingtin Protein; D018020:Lithium Compounds; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D007294:Inositol; D014199:Trehalose; D011494:Protein Kinases; C546842:MTOR protein, human; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases; D020123:Sirolimus