The pleiotropic roles of autophagy in Alzheimer's disease: From pathophysiology to therapy.

Curr Opin Pharmacol

Department of Medical Genetics, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; UK Dementia Research Institute, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Electronic address:

Published: October 2021

AI Article Synopsis

  • Autophagy is essential for clearing toxic protein aggregates in diseases like Alzheimer's, where harmful proteins accumulate.
  • In Alzheimer's, disruptions in the autophagy process contribute to the buildup of amyloid-β and tau tangles, which are key features of the disease.
  • Research suggests that enhancing autophagy could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's by potentially reducing these toxic proteins and managing inflammation associated with the disease.

Article Abstract

Autophagy is a lysosomal degradation pathway and the main clearance route of many toxic protein aggregates. The molecular pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) manifests in the form of protein aggregates-extracellular amyloid-β depositions and intracellular tau neurofibrillary tangles. Perturbations at different steps of the autophagy pathway observed in cellular and animal models of AD might contribute to amyloid-β and tau accumulation. Increased levels of autophagosomes detected in patients' brains suggest an alteration of autophagy in human disease. Autophagy is also involved in the fine-tuning of inflammation, which increases in the early stages of AD and possibly drives its pathogenesis. Mounting evidence of a causal link between impaired autophagy and AD pathology uncovers an exciting opportunity for the development of autophagy-based therapeutics.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8519395PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coph.2021.07.011DOI Listing

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