Selective Autophagy Receptors in Neuronal Health and Disease.

Neurons are electrically excitable, postmitotic cells that perform sensory, relaying, and motor functions. Because of their unique morphological and functional specialization, cells of this type are sensitive to the stress caused by accumulation of misfolded proteins or damaged organelles. Autophagy is the fundamental mechanism that ensures sequestration of cytosolic material and its subsequent degradation in lysosomes of eukaryotic cells, thereby providing cell-autonomous nutrients and removing harmful cargos.

Love laughs at Locksmiths: Ubiquitylation of p62 unlocks its autophagy receptor potential.

The multimodular adapter p62/sequestosome-1 plays prominent roles in physiology and disease by mediating cell signaling and cargo degradation. The work by Peng et al. published recently in Cell Research provides mechanistic insights into activation of its autophagy receptor function critical for maintaining cell homeostasis during various forms of stress.

Pharmacological inhibition of ULK1 kinase blocks mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-dependent autophagy.

Autophagy is a cell-protective and degradative process that recycles damaged and long-lived cellular components. Cancer cells are thought to take advantage of autophagy to help them to cope with the stress of tumorigenesis; thus targeting autophagy is an attractive therapeutic approach. However, there are currently no specific inhibitors of autophagy.