title: Following autophagy step by step.
abstract: Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved lysosomal degradation route for soluble components of the cytosol and organelles. There is great interest in identifying compounds that modulate autophagy because they may have applications in the treatment of major diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative disease. Hundeshagen and colleagues describe this month in BMC Biology a screening assay based on flow cytometry that makes it possible to track distinct steps in the autophagic process and thereby identify novel modulators of autophagy.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Cancer Research Group, Institute of Medical Biology, University of Tromsø, 9037 Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Tom Egil
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: Terje
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Johansen
mesh_terms: D001343:Autophagy; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002316:Cardiotonic Agents