title: Chaperone-Mediated Autophagy and Mitochondrial Homeostasis in Parkinson's Disease.
abstract: Parkinson's disease (PD), a complex neurodegenerative disorder, is pathologically characterized by the formation of Lewy bodies and loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc). Mitochondrial dysfunction is considered to be one of the most important causative mechanisms. In addition, dysfunction of chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), one of the lysosomal proteolytic pathways, has been shown to play an important role in the pathogenesis of PD. An exciting and important development is recent finding that CMA and mitochondrial quality control may be linked. This review summarizes the studies revealing the link between autophagy and mitochondrial function. Discussions are focused on the connections between CMA and mitochondrial failure and on the role of MEF2D, a neuronal survival factor, in mediating the regulation of mitochondria in the context of CMA. These new findings highlight the need to further explore the possibility of targeting the MEF2D-mitochondria-CMA network in both understanding the PD pathogenesis and developing novel therapeutic strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, 569 Xinsi Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710038, China.
authors.forename: Ruixin
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6240-3089
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, 569 Xinsi Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710038, China.
authors.forename: Guodong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Neurology, School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
authors.forename: Zixu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, 569 Xinsi Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710038, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yang