Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 24, 2025

Exploring the Regulation of Lipid Droplet Catabolism through Lipophagy
07:20

Exploring the Regulation of Lipid Droplet Catabolism through Lipophagy

Published on: January 31, 2025

682

The multifaceted role of autophagy in cancer

Ryan C Russell1,2,3, Kun-Liang Guan4

  • 1Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

The EMBO Journal
|May 10, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Autophagy, a cellular process, can either suppress or promote cancer. This review summarizes autophagy's complex roles in cancer development and discusses therapeutic targeting strategies.

Area of Science:

  • Cell Biology
  • Cancer Research
  • Molecular Biology

Background:

  • Autophagy is a fundamental cellular degradation process crucial for maintaining homeostasis.
  • Cellular stress, including starvation and organelle damage, significantly impacts autophagy.
  • While initially linked to tumor suppression, autophagy's role in cancer is now understood to be context-dependent.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the multifaceted roles of autophagy in cancer.
  • To explore how autophagy influences cancer initiation, progression, and metabolism.
  • To discuss current and future therapeutic strategies targeting autophagy in cancer treatment.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of studies on autophagy and cancer.
  • Analysis of data from genetically engineered mouse models.
  • Examination of in vitro cell studies.

Main Results:

  • Autophagy's role in cancer is complex, acting as both a tumor suppressor and promoter.
  • Autophagy impacts cancer initiation, progression, immune cell infiltration, and metabolic reprogramming.
  • Pharmacological targeting of autophagy is an active area of clinical investigation.

Conclusions:

  • Autophagy presents a dual role in cancer, necessitating careful consideration for therapeutic interventions.
  • Understanding the context-specific functions of autophagy is key to developing effective cancer treatments.
  • Further research is needed to fully elucidate and exploit autophagy's therapeutic potential in oncology.
Keywords:
ATGautophagycancerchloroquinemetabolism

More Related Videos

Author Spotlight: A Selective Luciferase-Based Assay for Monitoring ATG4B 27 Activity in Cells09:51

Author Spotlight: A Selective Luciferase-Based Assay for Monitoring ATG4B 27 Activity in Cells

Published on: June 30, 2023

1.1K
Assessing Autophagic Flux by Measuring LC3, p62, and LAMP1 Co-localization Using Multispectral Imaging Flow Cytometry11:39

Assessing Autophagic Flux by Measuring LC3, p62, and LAMP1 Co-localization Using Multispectral Imaging Flow Cytometry

Published on: July 21, 2017

31.5K

Related Concept Videos

Autophagy01:27

Autophagy

Autophagy is a self-digesting process by which a cell protects itself from threats both within and outside the cell, ranging from abnormal proteins to invading bacteria. In this process, obsolete components of the cell and invading microbes are degraded by hydrolytic enzymes active in an acidic environment of the lysosomal lumen.
An autophagic pathway consists of a series of signaling events activated in response to diverse stress and physiological conditions such as food deprivation,...
4.7K
Delivery Pathways to the Lysosome01:36

Delivery Pathways to the Lysosome

Eukaryotic cells use different mechanisms to eliminate toxic waste obsolete and worn-out substances. Lysosomes play a pivotal role in this, and hence, these substances are carried to the lysosome from other parts of the cell and extracellular space through different pathways. The most elaborately studied pathways to the lysosome are the endocytic pathways.
Endocytosis
In endocytosis, the cell membrane takes up macromolecules and particles from the surrounding medium. Clathrin-mediated...
7.9K
mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression03:03

mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression

The mammalian target of rapamycin or mTOR protein was discovered in 1994 due to its direct interaction with rapamycin. The protein gets its name from a yeast homolog called TOR. The mTOR protein complex in mammalian cells plays a major role in balancing anabolic processes such as the synthesis of proteins, lipids, and nucleotides and catabolic processes, such as autophagy in response to environmental cues, such as availability of nutrients and growth factors.
The mTOR pathway or the...
3.9K
Autophagic Cell Death01:18

Autophagic Cell Death

Christian de Duve discovered “autophagy,” a process in which cellular components are engulfed by membrane-bound organelles called autophagosomes. The autophagosomes then fuse with lysosomes to digest the enclosed contents. Autophagy is generally activated in cells to prevent cell death. However, cell death is triggered when the damage is beyond repair.
Autophagy and Apoptosis
Autophagy can activate apoptosis. In normal conditions, the autophagy activating protein Beclin-1 and...
3.6K
Autocrine Signaling01:01

Autocrine Signaling

Autocrine signaling is one of the many signaling mechanisms that function inside multicellular organisms to carry out intercellular communication. In this type of signaling mechanism, the same cell that secretes an extracellular signaling molecule also expresses the receptors to bind and respond to that signaling molecule.
Autocrine Signaling in Macrophages
Under normal physiological conditions, autocrine signaling is essential for maintaining homeostasis. This process is well characterized in...
48.9K
Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells02:53

Adaptive Mechanisms in Cancer Cells

Cancer cells accumulate genetic changes at an abnormally rapid rate due to the defects in the DNA repair mechanisms. From an evolutionary perspective, such genetic instability is advantageous for cancer development. Mutant cell lines accumulate a series of beneficial mutations that contribute to their progression into cancer.
Some of the advantages that cancer cells have on normal cells include - enhanced ability to divide without terminally differentiating, induce new blood vessel formation,...
6.0K