title: A systems biology analysis of autophagy in cancer therapy.
abstract: Autophagy, which degrades redundant or damaged cellular constituents, is intricately relevant to a variety of human diseases, most notably cancer. Autophagy exerts distinct effects on cancer initiation and progression, due to the intrinsic overlapping of autophagic and cancer signalling pathways. However, due to the complexity of cancer as a systemic disease, the fate of cancer cells is not decided by any one signalling pathway. Numerous autophagic inter-connectivity and cross-talk pathways need to be further clarified at a systems level. In this review, we propose a systems biology perspective for the comprehensive analysis of the autophagy-cancer network, focusing on systems biology analysis in autophagy and cancer therapy. Together, these analyses may not only improve our understanding on autophagy-cancer relationships, but also facilitate cancer drug discovery.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences and Key Laboratory of Bio-Resources, Ministry of Education, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China; School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550001, China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Chun-yang
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Si
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Yong-xi
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chuan-fang
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Bi-song
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Yue
authors.forename: Jin-ku
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Bao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001343:Autophagy / Q000187:drug effects*; D055808:Drug Discovery; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects; D049490:Systems Biology
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents
keywords: Autophagy; Cancer; Drug discovery; Systems biology; Therapy