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Updated: Feb 11, 2026

Free Radicals in Chemical Biology: from Chemical Behavior to Biomarker Development
Published on: April 15, 2013
The Role of Free Radicals in Autophagy Regulation: Implications for Ageing
M Pajares1,2, A Cuadrado1,2, N Engedal3
1Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas "Alberto Sols" UAM-CSIC, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Paz (IdiPaz) and Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Abstract:
Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS, resp.) have been traditionally perceived solely as detrimental, leading to oxidative damage of biological macromolecules and organelles, cellular demise, and ageing. However, recent data suggest that ROS/RNS also plays an integral role in intracellular signalling and redox homeostasis (redoxtasis), which are necessary for the maintenance of cellular functions. There is a complex relationship between cellular ROS/RNS content and autophagy, which represents one of the major quality control systems in the cell. In this review, we focus on redox signalling and autophagy regulation with a special interest on ageing-associated changes. In the last section, we describe the role of autophagy and redox signalling in the context of Alzheimer's disease as an example of a prevalent age-related disorder.
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