title: Autophagy and its implication in human oral diseases.
abstract: Macroautophagy/autophagy is a conserved lysosomal degradation process essential for cell physiology and human health. By regulating apoptosis, inflammation, pathogen clearance, immune response and other cellular processes, autophagy acts as a modulator of pathogenesis and is a potential therapeutic target in diverse diseases. With regard to oral disease, autophagy can be problematic either when it is activated or impaired, because this process is involved in diverse functions, depending on the specific disease and its level of progression. In particular, activated autophagy functions as a cytoprotective mechanism under environmental stress conditions, which regulates tumor growth and mediates resistance to anticancer treatment in established tumors. During infections and inflammation, activated autophagy selectively delivers microbial antigens to the immune systems, and is therefore connected to the elimination of intracellular pathogens. Impaired autophagy contributes to oxidative stress, genomic instability, chronic tissue damage, inflammation and tumorigenesis, and is involved in aberrant bacterial clearance and immune priming. Hence, substantial progress in the study of autophagy provides new insights into the pathogenesis of oral diseases. This review outlines the mechanisms of autophagy, and highlights the emerging roles of this process in oral cancer, periapical lesions, periodontal diseases, and oral candidiasis.
authors.affiliation: a The State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Basic Science of Stomatology (Hubei-MOST) and Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedicine Ministry of Education , School and Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University , Wuhan , Hubei , China.
authors.forename: Ya-Qin
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: a The State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Basic Science of Stomatology (Hubei-MOST) and Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedicine Ministry of Education , School and Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University , Wuhan , Hubei , China.|b Department of Oral Medicine , School and Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University , Wuhan , Hubei , China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: a The State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Basic Science of Stomatology (Hubei-MOST) and Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedicine Ministry of Education , School and Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University , Wuhan , Hubei , China.|b Department of Oral Medicine , School and Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University , Wuhan , Hubei , China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D001343:Autophagy; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009059:Mouth Diseases / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: autophagy; oral cancer; oral candidiasis; periapical lesions; periodontal diseases