Advances in autophagy for Parkinson's disease pathogenesis and treatment

Autophagy is a cellular process essential for maintaining neuronal homeostasis by degrading and recycling damaged organelles and proteins. Impairments in canonical autophagy pathways, such as macroautophagy, chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA), and mitophagy, are linked to Parkinson's disease (PD) pathogenesis, contributing to α-synuclein aggregation and dopaminergic neuronal loss. Moreover, the recent discovery of noncanonical autophagy highlights the unexpected roles of autophagy-related proteins in protein degradation beyond the canonical autophagy pathways. Advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms of autophagy provide potential therapeutic strategies to modulate this pathway in PD. Key therapeutic targets include mTOR and AMPK, with compounds like rapamycin, trehalose, and resveratrol showing promise in preclinical models. Enhancing lysosomal function and mitophagy also presents a viable strategy to alleviate PD symptoms. This review emphasizes the complex roles of autophagy in PD and highlights the potential of autophagy modulation as a promising therapeutic strategy for treating the disease.