Association Between Autophagy and Neurodegenerative Diseases

Autophagy is a phylogenetically conserved mechanism that controls the degradation of subcellular constituents, including misfolded proteins, and damaged organelles. The progression of many neurodegenerative diseases is thought to be driven by the aggregation of misfolded proteins; therefore, autopha...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Nobuhiro Fujikake, Minkyoung Shin, Shigeomi Shimizu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-05-01
Series:Frontiers in Neuroscience
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnins.2018.00255/full
Description
Summary:Autophagy is a phylogenetically conserved mechanism that controls the degradation of subcellular constituents, including misfolded proteins, and damaged organelles. The progression of many neurodegenerative diseases is thought to be driven by the aggregation of misfolded proteins; therefore, autophagic activity is thought to affect disease severity to some extent. In some neurodegenerative diseases, the suppression of autophagic activity accelerates disease progression. Given that the induction of autophagy can potentially mitigate disease severity, various autophagy-inducing compounds have been developed and their efficacy has been evaluated in several rodent models of neurodegenerative diseases.
ISSN:1662-453X