Autophagy and Others Respiratory Diseases

Besides COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, and asthma, autophagy also participates in the development of many other respiratory diseases. Cystic fibrosis is an innate lung disease. Unlike idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, cystic fibrosis has unique pathogenesis. Autophagy is an essential biological mechanism for the removal of misfolded proteins and damaged organelles in cells. Abnormal autophagy activity is involved in the pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis. Various studies have demonstrated that abnormalities or impaired autophagy are associated with cardiovascular diseases including pulmonary vascular disease. Autophagy plays a key role in maintaining normal vascular biological functions and vascular cell tissue homeostasis, and also plays an important role in the pathogenesis of various vascular diseases. For example, recent studies have found that autophagy participates in the occurrence and development of pulmonary hypertension. In addition, autophagy plays a central role in both innate and adaptive immune responses in immune cells or other cells with immune function. Thus, autophagy is the important cellular biological mechanism which causes cell fighting against pathogenic microorganisms including viruses, bacteria, and parasites. In this chapter, we discuss the work related to autophagy and other lung diseases.