The Basics of Autophagy

Autophagy can be defined as a catabolic process that maintains cellular homeostasis by the degradation of damaged or excess cellular organelles and protein aggregates from the cytoplasm, thereby enabling cell survival. Cell culture and in vivo studies have revealed the importance of autophagy in numerous diseases, including cancer, aging, neurodegenerative, infectious and inflammatory diseases. Therefore, understanding the molecular basis of the formation and composition of the different structures involved in autophagy, as well as the regulation of this pathway, is an important goal for converting autophagy into a potential therapeutic target in a plethora of diseases.