Autophagy as a Stress Response Pathway in the Immune System

Macroautophagy, hereafter, referred to as autophagy, has long been regarded as a housekeeping pathway involved in intracellular degradation and energy recycling. These housekeeping and homeostatic functions are especially important during cellular stress, such as periods of nutrient deprivation. However, importance of autophagy extends far beyond its degradative functions. Recent evidence shows that autophagy plays an essential role in development, organization and functions of the immune system, and defects in autophagy lead to several diseases, including cancer and autoimmunity. In the immune system, autophagy is important in regulation of the innate and adaptive immune responses. This review focuses on the roles of autophagy in the adaptive immune system. We first introduce the autophagy pathway and provide a brief description of the major molecular players involved in autophagy. We then discuss the importance of autophagy as a stress integrator mechanism and provide relevant examples of this role of autophagy in adaptive immune cells. Then we proceed to describe how autophagy regulates development, activation and functions of different adaptive immune cells. In these contexts, we mention both degradative and non-degradative roles of autophagy, and illustrate their importance. We also discuss role of autophagy in antigen presenting cells, which play critical roles in the activation of adaptive immune cells. Further, we describe how autophagy regulates functions of different adaptive immune cells during infection, inflammation and autoimmunity.