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Updated: Apr 3, 2026

Study of Protein-protein Interactions in Autophagy Research
Published on: September 9, 2017
Autophagy and autophagy-related proteins in the immune system
Shusaku T Shibutani1,2, Tatsuya Saitoh3, Heike Nowag4
1Laboratory of Intracellular Membrane Dynamics, Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
Abstract:
Autophagy is an intracellular bulk degradation system that is highly conserved in eukaryotes. The discovery of autophagy-related ('ATG') proteins in the 1990s greatly advanced the mechanistic understanding of autophagy and clarified the fact that autophagy serves important roles in various biological processes. In addition, studies have revealed other roles for the autophagic machinery beyond autophagy. In this Review, we introduce advances in the knowledge of the roles of autophagy and its components in immunity, including innate immunity, inflammatory responses and adaptive immunity.
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