title: Methods to study chaperone-mediated autophagy.
abstract: Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) is a multistep process that involves selective degradation and digestion of a pool of soluble cytosolic proteins in lysosomes. Cytosolic substrates are selectively identified and targeted by chaperones to lysosomes where they are subsequently translocated into the organelle lumen through a dedicated CMA-associated lysosomal membrane receptor/translocation complex. CMA contributes to maintaining a functional proteome, through elimination of altered proteins, and participates in the cellular energetic balance through amino acid recycling. Defective or dysfunctional CMA has been associated with human pathologies such as neurodegeneration, cancer, immunodeficiency or diabetes, increasing the overall interest in methods to monitor this selective autophagic pathway. Here, we describe approaches used to study CMA in different experimental models.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA; Institute for Aging Studies, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA.
authors.forename: Bindi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA; Institute for Aging Studies, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA. Electronic address: ana-maria.cuervo@einstein.yu.edu.
authors.forename: Ana Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cuervo
mesh_terms: D001343:Autophagy / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008247:Lysosomes / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000379:methods*; D018832:Molecular Chaperones / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D059748:Proteolysis
chemical_list: D018832:Molecular Chaperones
keywords: Autophagy; Fluorescent reporters; Lysosomes; Organelle isolation; Proteolysis