Targeting autophagy in ethnomedicine against human diseases

In the past five years, ethnopharmacy-based drugs have been increasingly used in clinical practice. It has been reported that hundreds of ethnopharmacy-based drugs can modulate autophagy to regulate physiological and pathological processes, and ethnomedicines also have certain therapeutic effects on illnesses, revealing the important roles of these medicines in regulating autophagy and treating diseases.

This study reviews the regulatory effects of natural products on autophagy in recent years, and discusses their pharmacological effects and clinical applications in the process of diseases. It provides a preliminary literature basis and reference for the research of plant drugs in the regulation of autophagy.

A comprehensive systematic review in the fields of relationship between autophagy and ethnomedicine in treating diseases from PubMed electronic database was performed. Information was obtained from documentary sources.

We recorded some illnesses associated with autophagy, then classified them into different categories reasonably. Based on the uses of these substances in different researches of diseases, a total of 80 active ingredients or compound preparations of natural drugs were searched. The autophagy mechanisms of these substances in the treatments of divers diseases have been summarized for the first time, we also looked forward to the clinical application of some of them.

Autophagy plays a key function in lots of illnesses, the regulation of autophagy has become one of the important means to prevent and treat these diseases. About 80 compounds and preparations involved in this review have been proved to have therapeutic effects on related diseases through the mechanism of autophagy. Experiments in vivo and in vitro showed that these compounds and preparations could treat these diseases by regulating autophagy. The typical natural products curcumin and tripterine have powerful roles in regulating autophagy and show good and diversified curative effects.