Human cytomegalovirus modulates macroautophagy in two opposite directions. First, HCMV stimulates autophagy during the early stages of infection, as evident by an increase in the number of autophagosomes and a rise in the autophagic flux. This stimulation occurs independently of de novo viral protein synthesis since UV-inactivated HCMV recapitulates the stimulatory effect on macroautophagy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMacroautophagy is a vacuolar degradation pathway that terminates in the lysosomal compartment. Macroautophagy is a multistep process involving: (1) signaling events that occur upstream of the molecular machinery of autophagy; (2) molecular machinery involved in the formation of the autophagosome, the initial multimembrane-bound compartment formed in the autophagic pathway; and (3) maturation of autophagosomes, which acquire acidic and degradative capacities. In this chapter we summarize what is known about the regulation of the different steps involved in autophagy, and we also discuss how macroautophagy can be manipulated using drugs or genetic approaches that affect macroautophagy signaling, and the subsequent formation and maturation of the autophagosomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuman cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus that remains the major infectious cause of birth defects, as well as being an important opportunistic pathogen. Macroautophagy (hereafter referred to as autophagy) is an evolutionarily conserved process responsible for the degradation of cytoplasmic macromolecules, and the elimination of damaged organelles via a lysosomal pathway. This process is also triggered in organisms by stressful conditions and by certain diseases.
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