Autophagy in neurodegeneration: two sides of the same coin.
Autophagy is a bulk lysosomal degradation process important in development, differentiation and cellular homeostasis in multiple organs. Interestingly, neuronal survival is highly dependent on autophagy due to its post-mitotic nature, polarized morphology and active protein trafficking. A growing body of evidence now suggests that alteration or dysfunction of autophagy causes accumulation of abnormal proteins and/or damaged organelles, thereby leading to neurodegenerative disease. Although autophagy generally prevents neuronal cell death, it plays a protective or detrimental role in neurodegenerative disease depending on the environment. In this review, the two sides of autophagy will be discussed in the context of several neurodegenerative diseases.
Lee
Jin-A
JA
College of Life Science and Nano Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Hannam University, Daejeon 305-811, Korea leeja@hnu.kr
D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009410:Nerve Degeneration / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology