title: Autophagy and heart failure: a possible role for homocysteine.
abstract: Autophagy is a process used for intracellular digestion of organelles and proteins and has special relevance to the long-lived cardiomyocytes in heart disease. The pathway for autophagy and all its mediators remain to be elucidated, but involve such proteins as Atg, Beclin-1, LAMP-2, BH3, Bcl2, PI3K Kinase as well as a plethora of others. It is still not entirely clear whether autophagy is destructive or beneficial to the cell; evidence suggests that the answer is case-specific. For instance, autophagy appears to preserve cell life under cases of ischemia in I/R injury, but is detrimental during reperfusion. High levels of homocysteine (Hcy), a sulfur-containing amino acid, have been shown to be an independent risk factor for chronic heart failure. There are several links to induction and repression of autophagy and Hcy; the following connections to Hcy and autophagy have been made: intracellular nitrous oxide production, intracellular calcium production, and reactive oxygen species production. Further work remains to be elucidated concerning the specific mechanisms under which autophagy occurs and possible Hcy-mediated connections. Moreover, the therapeutic implications might be of some promise to patients.
authors: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY 40202, USA.
authors: Thomas P
authors: TP
authors: Vacek
authors: Jonathan C
authors: JC
authors: Vacek
authors: Neetu
authors: N
authors: Tyagi
authors: Suresh C
authors: SC
authors: Tyagi
mesh_terms: D001343:Autophagy / Q000502:physiology*; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D006710:Homocysteine; D002118:Calcium