Title : Biochemical approach to autophagy
Abstract:
Autophagy is the process of self-destruction of the cell in order to clear the damaged proteins and organelles from the body and to balance energy sources in response to oxidation caused by nutrition. The mechanism of apoptosis, known as cancer cell death, is actually autophagy that occurs in tumor cells. The breakdown of cell proteins and organelles in lysosomes is also involved in the autophagy process.
The biochemical pathway of autophagy was first described as the genetic struggle of yeast bacteria to survive in the absence of nitrogen. Subsequent studies have also shown that it is a necessary mechanism to recover from nutrient deficiency in newborn mice. Studies are showing that it suppresses the tumor in the early stages of tumor formation. Therefore, it is thought that the stimulation of autophagy may be beneficial in the prevention of cancer. Cellularly, autophagy creates a homeostatic mechanism by recirculating cytosolic macromolecules such as proteins to meet anabolic needs and maintain survival in starvation. It protects cells from unprogrammed apoptosis by removing excessively produced, damaged, or dangerous organelles such as mitochondria. Although it is a cellular maintenance mechanism, under special conditions, excessive autophagy can lead to nonapoptotic programmed cell death. Autophagy is divided into three.
- Macroautophagy (autophagy); A part of the cytoplasm fuses with the lysosome to form a vesicle called autophagosome, and its contents are degraded.
- Chaperone-dependent autophagy; It is selective for the degradation of specific cellular proteins.
- Microautophagy; Invagination, protrusion, or lysosomal confinement directly engulfs the cytoplasm into the lysosome.
How does autophagy stimulate survival against starvation at cellular levels in this research? The answer to the question is sought. It biochemically clarifies the aspects of the autophagy mechanism that have not been sufficiently elucidated by using current sources. The role of autophagy in diseases where autophagy is effective needs to be investigated further in order to establish new regulators or therapeutic targets in developmental disorders and degenerative diseases involving various organs and tissues
