Autophagy: Insights from DEspR-deficiency and haploinsufficiency

We recently showed that DEspR-haploinsufficiency resulted in increased neuronal autophagy and spongiform changes in the adult brain especially the hippocampus, cerebral cortex and basal ganglia, causing cognitive performance deficits. This model demonstrates a causal link between increased autophagy and neurodegenerative changes. This is in contrast with recent observations that decreased autophagy from null mutations of autophagy genes, Atg5 and Atg7, resulted in early neurodegenerative changes. With the observed autophagy phenotype, we then compared the neural tube phenotype of DEspR-deficient mice with knockout mice of genes established to underlie or regulate autophagy. Intriguingly, the hyperproliferative neuroepithelium observed in DEspR-deficient embryos is also detected in null mutants of Ambra1, an autophagy modulator, and two apoptosis genes, Apaf1 and Caspase 9. While all four knockout models exhibited hyperproliferative neuroepithelium, DEspR-deficient mice differed by having greater neural tube cavitation. Additionally, observed DEspR roles in angiogenesis and autophagy recapitulate the association of angiogenesis inhibition and increased autophagy as observed for endostatin and kringle5, thus elucidating an expanding complex network of autophagy, apoptosis and angiogenesis in neuroepithelial development, and an emerging complex spectrum of autophagy effects on neurodegeneration. Nevertheless, DEspR provides a ligand-activated receptor system to modulate autophagy – be it to increase autophagy by inhibition of DEspR-function, or to decrease autophagy by agonist stimulation of DEspR-function.     

How autophagy both activates and inhibits cellular senescence

Autophagy and cellular senescence are stress responses essential for homeostasis. While recent studies indicate a genetic relationship between autophagy and senescence, whether autophagy acts positively or negatively on senescence is still subject to debate. Although autophagy was originally recognized as a nonspecific lysosomal degradation pathway (general autophagy), increasing evidence supports a selective form of autophagy that mediates the degradation of specific targets (selective autophagy). Our recent study revealed distinctive roles of selective autophagy and general autophagy in the regulation of senescence, at least in part resolving apparently contradictory reports regarding the relationship between these 2 important homeostatic stress responses.     

Autophagy Attenuates Diabetic Glomerular Damage through Protection of Hyperglycemia-Induced Podocyte Injury

Despite the recent attention focused on the important role of autophagy in maintaining podocyte homeostasis, little is known about the changes and mechanisms of autophagy in podocyte dysfunction under diabetic condition. In this study, we investigated the role of autophagy in podocyte biology and its involvement in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. Podocytes had a high basal level of autophagy. And basal autophagy inhibition either by 3-methyladenenine (3-MA) or by Beclin-1 siRNA was detrimental to its architectural structure. However, under diabetic condition in vivo and under high glucose conditions in vitro, high basal level of autophagy in podocytes became defective and defective autophagy facilitated the podocyte injury. Since the dynamics of endoplasmic reticulum(ER) seemed to play a vital role in regulating the autophagic flux, the results that Salubrinal/Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA) could restore defective autophagy further indicated that the evolution of autophagy may be mediated by the changes of cytoprotective output in the ER stress. Finally, we demonstrated in vivo that the autophagy of podocyte was inhibited under diabetic status and TUDCA could improve defective autophagy. Taken together, these data suggested that autophagy might be interrupted due to the failure of ER cytoprotective capacity upon high glucose induced unmitigated stress, and the defective autophagy might accelerate the irreparable progression of diabetic nephropathy.     

Sustained Autophagy Contributes to Measles Virus Infectivity

The interplay between autophagy and intracellular pathogens is intricate as autophagy is an essential cellular response to fight against infections, whereas numerous microbes have developed strategies to escape this process or even exploit it to their own benefit. The fine tuned timing and/or selective molecular pathways involved in the induction of autophagy upon infections could be the cornerstone allowing cells to either control intracellular pathogens, or be invaded by them. We report here that measles virus infection induces successive autophagy signallings in permissive cells, via distinct and uncoupled molecular pathways. Immediately upon infection, attenuated measles virus induces a first transient wave of autophagy, via a pathway involving its cellular receptor CD46 and the scaffold protein GOPC. Soon after infection, a new autophagy signalling is initiated which requires viral replication and the expression of the non-structural measles virus protein C. Strikingly, this second autophagy signalling can be sustained overtime within infected cells, independently of the expression of C, but via a third autophagy input resulting from cell-cell fusion and the formation of syncytia. Whereas this sustained autophagy signalling leads to the autophagy degradation of cellular contents, viral proteins escape from degradation. Furthermore, this autophagy flux is ultimately exploited by measles virus to limit the death of infected cells and to improve viral particle formation. Whereas CD150 dependent virulent strains of measles virus are unable to induce the early CD46/GOPC dependent autophagy wave, they induce and exploit the late and sustained autophagy. Overall, our work describes distinct molecular pathways for an induction of self-beneficial sustained autophagy by measles virus.     

Toll-like receptors control autophagy

Autophagy is a newly recognized innate defense mechanism, acting as a cell-autonomous system for elimination of intracellular pathogens. The signals and signalling pathways inducing autophagy in response to pathogen invasion are presently not known. Here we show that autophagy is controlled by recognizing conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). We screened a PAMP library for effects on autophagy in RAW 264.7 macrophages and found that several prototype Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands induced autophagy. Single-stranded RNA and TLR7 generated the most potent effects. Induction of autophagy via TLR7 depended on MyD88 expression. Stimulation of autophagy with TLR7 ligands was functional in eliminating intracellular microbes, even when the target pathogen was normally not associated with TLR7 signalling. These findings link two innate immunity defense systems, TLR signalling and autophagy, provide a potential molecular mechanism for induction of autophagy in response to pathogen invasion, and show that the newly recognized ability of TLR ligands to stimulate autophagy can be used to treat intracellular pathogens.     

Analysis of the role of autophagy inhibition by two complementary human cytomegalovirus BECN1/Beclin 1-binding proteins

Autophagy is activated early after human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection but, later on, the virus blocks autophagy. Here we characterized 2 HCMV proteins, TRS1 and IRS1, which inhibit autophagy during infection. Expression of either TRS1 or IRS1 was able to block autophagy in different cell lines, independently of the EIF2S1 kinase, EIF2AK2/PKR. Instead, TRS1 and IRS1 interacted with the autophagy protein BECN1/Beclin 1. We mapped the BECN1-binding domain (BBD) of IRS1 and TRS1 and found it to be essential for autophagy inhibition. Mutant viruses that express only IRS1 or TRS1 partially controlled autophagy, whereas a double mutant virus expressing neither protein stimulated autophagy. A mutant virus that did not express IRS1 and expressed a truncated form of TRS1 in which the BBD was deleted, failed to control autophagy. However, this mutant virus had similar replication kinetics as wild-type virus, suggesting that autophagy inhibition is not critical for viral replication. In fact, using pharmacological modulators of autophagy and inhibition of autophagy by shRNA knockdown, we discovered that stimulating autophagy enhanced viral replication. Conversely, inhibiting autophagy decreased HCMV infection. Thus, our results demonstrate a new proviral role of autophagy for a DNA virus.     

Development of selective nutrient deprivation as a system to study autophagy induction and regulation in neurons

Autophagy is emerging as a fundamentally important pathway for countering misfolded protein stress in the central nervous system. Indeed, many studies suggest that upregulation of a properly functioning macroautophagy pathway can be neuroprotective in neurodegenerative disorders characterized by the production of toxic protein conformers. Despite these advances, little is known about how autophagy is regulated in neurons. To directly study neuronal autophagy, we developed a primary neuron culture system where we can induce autophagy by withdrawal of a key supplement from the culture medium. We recently reported that the absence of insulin from the culture medium induces autophagy in this primary neuron system, and that the neuronal autophagy activation is mTOR-dependent. Further studies indicate that our nutrient-deprivation method of autophagy induction yields normally functioning and fully progressing autophagy based upon treatment with lysosomal inhibitors. As this method of autophagy induction can protect neurons from proteotoxic cell death, our findings suggest that an understanding of how to turn on autophagy in neurons could translate into a viable approach for treating neurodegenerative proteinopathies. However, before therapeutic applications can be realized, the pathways regulating neuronal autophagy need to be defined. As highlighted herein, our system for autophagy induction should contribute to efforts aimed at understanding the regulatory basis of autophagy activation in neurons.     

活性氧与自噬的研究进展

活性氧（reactive oxygen species,ROS）和自噬在人体内作用广泛,且与人类的健康密切相关。两者之间关系复杂,ROS作为诱导自噬的信号分子,参与多种诱导自噬的信号途径,在自噬的形成过程中起着重要作用,而自噬具有减少ROS损伤的作用。对ROS与自噬之间的关系,包括ROS介导自噬的分子机制,以及ROS和自噬在肿瘤、神经退行性疾病和衰老中的作用进行综述。     

Beginning to understand autophagy, an intracellular self-degradation system in plants

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved intracellular process for the vacuolar degradation of cytoplasmic components. There is no doubt that autophagy is very important to plant life, especially because plants are immobile and must survive in environmental extremes. Early studies of autophagy provided our first insights into the structural characteristics of the process in plants, but for a long time the molecular mechanisms and the physiological roles of autophagy were not understood. Genetic analyses of autophagy in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae have greatly expanded our knowledge of the molecular aspects of autophagy in plants as well as in animals. Until recently our knowledge of plant autophagy was in its infancy compared with autophagy research in yeast and animals, but recent efforts by plant researchers have made many advances in our understanding of plant autophagy. Here I will introduce an overview of autophagy in plants, present current findings and discuss the physiological roles of self-degradation.     

Role and regulation of autophagy in cancer

Autophagy is an intracellular self-degradative mechanism which responds to cellular conditions like stress or starvation and plays a key role in regulating cell metabolism, energy homeostasis, starvation adaptation, development and cell death. Numerous studies have stipulated the participation of autophagy in cancer, but the role of autophagy either as tumor suppressor or tumor promoter is not clearly understood. However, mechanisms by which autophagy promotes cancer involves a diverse range of modifications of autophagy associated proteins such as ATGs, Beclin-1, mTOR, p53, KRAS etc. and autophagy pathways like mTOR, PI3K, MAPK, EGFR, HIF and NFκB. Furthermore, several researches have highlighted a context-dependent, cell type and stage-dependent regulation of autophagy in cancer. Alongside this, the interaction between tumor cells and their microenvironment including hypoxia has a great potential in modulating autophagy response in favour to substantiate cancer cell metabolism, self-proliferation and metastasis. In this review article, we highlight the mechanism of autophagy and their contribution to cancer cell proliferation and development. In addition, we discuss about tumor microenvironment interaction and their consequence on selective autophagy pathways and the involvement of autophagy in various tumor types and their therapeutic interventions concentrated on exploiting autophagy as a potential target to improve cancer therapy.     

细胞自噬与肿瘤发生的关系

细胞自噬(autophagy)是将细胞内受损、变性或衰老的蛋白质以及细胞器运输到溶酶体进行消化降解的过程.正常生理情况下,细胞自噬利于细胞保持自稳状态;在发生应激时,细胞自噬防止有毒或致癌的损伤蛋白质和细胞器的累积,抑制细胞癌变;然而肿瘤一旦形成,细胞自噬为癌细胞提供更丰富的营养,促进肿瘤生长.因此,在肿瘤发生发展的过程中,细胞自噬的作用具有两面性.尽管大多数抑癌蛋白可以激活细胞自噬这一结论被广泛接受,但p53作为重要的抑癌蛋白,在细胞核和细胞浆不同的亚细胞定位中对细胞自噬有着截然相反的调控.对于细胞自噬和癌症发生之间关系亟待深入的研究,这将会有助于人类更好地认识并最终攻克癌症.本文将针对细胞自噬与肿瘤发生过程中主要的信号调节通路展开介绍.     

Induction of Autophagy by a Novel Small Molecule Improves Aβ Pathology and Ameliorates Cognitive Deficits

Growing evidence has demonstrated a neuroprotective role of autophagy in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Thus, autophagy has been regarded as a potential therapeutic target, attracting increasing interest in pharmaceutical autophagy modulation by small molecules. We designed a two-cycle screening strategy on the basis of imaging high-throughout screening (HTS) and cellular toxicity assay, and have identified a novel autophagy inducer known as GTM-1. We further showed that GTM-1 exhibits dual activities, such as autophagy induction and antagonism against Aβ-oligomer toxicity. GTM-1 modulates autophagy in an Akt-independent and mTOR-independent manner. In addition, we demonstrated that GTM-1 enhances autophagy clearance and reverses the downregulation of autophagy flux by thapsigargin and asparagine. Furthermore, administration of GTM-1 attenuated Aβ pathology and ameliorated cognitive deficits in AD mice.     

Non-canonical autophagy: an exception or an underestimated form of autophagy?

Macroautophagy (hereafter called autophagy) is a dynamic and evolutionarily conserved process used to sequester and degrade cytoplasm and entire organelles in a sequestering vesicle with a double membrane, known as the autophagosome, which ultimately fuses with a lysosome to degrade its autophagic cargo. Recently, we have unraveled two distinct forms of autophagy in cancer cells, which we term canonical and non-canonical autophagy. In contrast to classical or canonical autophagy, non-canonical autophagy is a process that does not require the entire set of autophagy-related (Atg) proteins in particular Beclin 1, to form the autophagosome. Non-canonical autophagy is therefore not blocked by the knockdown of Beclin 1 or of its binding partner hVps34. Moreover overexpression of Bcl-2, which is known to block canonical starvation-induced autophagy by binding to Beclin 1, is unable to reverse the non-canonical autophagy triggered by the polyphenol resveratrol in the breast cancer MCF-7 cell line. In MCF-7 cells, at least, non-canonical autophagy is involved in the caspase-independent cell death induced by resveratrol.     

Stage-specific effect of inhibition of autophagy on chemotherapy-induced cytotoxicity

Anticancer therapies can induce autophagy in tumor cells and the role of autophagy in these cells may depend on the type of tumor, the stage of tumorigenesis, and the nature and extent of the insult. Appropriate modification of autophagy, that is, suppression of cell-protective autophagy or enhancement of cell-killing autophagy could augment cytotoxicity caused by anticancer therapy. Imatinib mesylate is an inhibitor of tyrosine kinases and is used for the therapy of patients with tumors including leukemias, but is not effective as a monotherapy for malignant glioma. To seek for a strategy to augment the therapeutic efficacy of imatinib, we examined the mode of cytotoxicity of imatinib in human malignant glioma cells. Since imatinib induced cytotoxicity associated with autophagy, we tested the effect of inhibition of autophagy on imatinib-induced cytotoxicity. We found that imatinib-induced cytotoxicity is attenuated by inhibition of autophagy at an early stage but augmented by inhibition of autophagy at a late stage through increasing apoptosis following mitochondrial damage. Though the mechanism of the stage-specific effect of inhibiting autophagy on cytotoxicity remains to be elucidated, our findings could be useful for developing a new strategy to enhance the efficacy of anticancer therapy by modulating autophagy.     

Role of autophagy in angiogenesis in aortic endothelial cells

Angiogenesis plays critical roles in the recovery phase of ischemic heart disease and peripheral vascular disease. An increase in autophagy is protective under hypoxic and chronic ischemic conditions. In the present study we determined the role of autophagy in angiogenesis. 3-Methyladenine (3-MA) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) against ATG5 were used to inhibit autophagy induced by nutrient deprivation of cultured bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs). Assays of BAECs tube formation and cell migration revealed that inhibition of autophagy by 3-MA or siRNA against ATG5 reduced angiogenesis. In contrast, induction of autophagy by overexpression of ATG5 increased BAECs tube formation and migration. Additionally, inhibiting autophagy impaired vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced angiogenesis. However, inhibition of autophagy did not alter the expression of pro-angiogenesis factors such as VEGF, platelet-derived growth factor, or integrin αV. Furthermore, autophagy increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and activated AKT phosphorylation. Inhibition of autophagy significantly decreased the production of ROS and activation of AKT but not of extracellular regulated kinase, whereas overexpression of ATG5 increased cellular ROS production and AKT activation in BAECs. Inhibition of AKT activation or ROS production significantly decreased the tube formation induced by ATG5 overexpression. Here we report a novel observation that autophagy plays an important role in angiogenesis in BAECs. Induction of autophagy promotes angiogenesis while inhibition of autophagy suppresses angiogenesis, including VEGF-induced angiogenesis. ROS production and AKT activation might be important mechanisms for mediating angiogenesis induced by autophagy. Our findings indicate that targeting autophagy may provide an important new tool for treating cardiovascular disease.     

The Bcl-2 Homology Domain 3 Mimetic Gossypol Induces Both Beclin 1-dependent and Beclin 1-independent Cytoprotective Autophagy in Cancer Cells

Gossypol, a natural Bcl-2 homology domain 3 mimetic compound isolated from cottonseeds, is currently being evaluated in clinical trials. Here, we provide evidence that gossypol induces autophagy followed by apoptotic cell death in both the MCF-7 human breast adenocarcinoma and HeLa cell lines. We first show that knockdown of the Bcl-2 homology domain 3-only protein Beclin 1 reduces gossypol-induced autophagy in MCF-7 cells, but not in HeLa cells. Gossypol inhibits the interaction between Beclin 1 and Bcl-2 (B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2), antagonizes the inhibition of autophagy by Bcl-2, and hence stimulates autophagy. We then show that knockdown of Vps34 reduces gossypol-induced autophagy in both cell lines, and consistent with this, the phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate-binding protein WIPI-1 is recruited to autophagosomal membranes. Further, Atg5 knockdown also reduces gossypol-mediated autophagy. We conclude that gossypol induces autophagy in both a canonical and a noncanonical manner. Notably, we found that gossypol-mediated apoptotic cell death was potentiated by treatment with the autophagy inhibitor wortmannin or with small interfering RNA against essential autophagy genes (Vps34, Beclin 1, and Atg5). Our findings support the notion that gossypol-induced autophagy is cytoprotective and not part of the cell death process induced by this compound.     

Docosahexaenoic acid induces autophagy through p53/AMPK/mTOR signaling and promotes apoptosis in human cancer cells harboring wild-type p53

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) has been reported to induce tumor cell death by apoptosis. However, little is known about the effects of DHA on autophagy, another complex well-programmed process characterized by the sequestration of cytoplasmic material within autophagosomes. Here, we show that DHA increased both the level of microtubule-associated protein light-chain 3 and the number of autophagic vacuoles without impairing autophagic vesicle turnover, indicating that DHA induces not only apoptosis but also autophagy. We also observed that DHA-induced autophagy was accompanied by p53 loss. Inhibition of p53 increased DHA-induced autophagy and prevention of p53 degradation significantly led to the attenuation of DHA-induced autophagy, suggesting that DHA-induced autophagy is mediated by p53. Further experiments showed that the mechanism of DHA-induced autophagy associated with p53 attenuation involved an increase in the active form of AMP-activated protein kinase and a decrease in the activity of mammalian target of rapamycin. In addition, compelling evidence for the interplay between autophagy and apoptosis induced by DHA is supported by the findings that autophagy inhibition suppressed apoptosis and further autophagy induction enhanced apoptosis in response to DHA treatment. Overall, our results demonstrate that autophagy contributes to the cytotoxicity of DHA in cancer cells harboring wild-type p53.     

Fas-mediated autophagy requires JNK activation in HeLa cells

Fas has been reported to play an important role in apoptosis; however, Fas-mediated autophagy and its mechanism are still unclear. Here, we found that Fas agonistic antibody CH11-induced autophagy in HeLa cells, and inhibition of autophagy by 3-MA increased CH11-induced apoptosis. A Fas antagonistic antibody (UB2) suppressed both CH11-induced autophagy and apoptosis. In addition, the CH11-induced autophagy was blocked by JNK inhibitor (SP600125), but it was not affected by caspase 8 inhibitor (Z-IETD); whereas the CH11-induced apoptosis was increased by SP600125, and it was suppressed by Z-IETD. Further experiments confirmed that JNK was activated by CH11 dose-dependently, and the activation was suppressed when autophagy was blocked by 3-MA. Together, our results suggest that JNK, but not caspase 8, involves in Fas-mediated CH11-induced autophagy in HeLa cells, and this autophagy plays a protective role in CH11-induced cell death.     

Autophagy, reactive oxygen species and the fate of mammalian cells

The paper reviews the rapidly expanding pool of information on cellular and molecular mechanisms of autophagy, including autophagy types, macroautophagy induction, formation of autophagosomes and cross-talk between autophagy and apoptosis. Special attention is given to generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in various cellular compartments of cells under stress conditions inducing autophagy. The roles of hydrogen peroxide and superoxide in autophagy are analysed based on the recent experimental work. The relation between ROS and life span prolongation is briefly discussed, with the final conclusion that the paradox of dual role of ROS in life and death may be solved to a considerable extent due to research on autophagy.     

Role and regulation of starvation-induced autophagy in the Drosophila fat body

In response to starvation, eukaryotic cells recover nutrients through autophagy, a lysosomal-mediated process of cytoplasmic degradation. Autophagy is known to be inhibited by TOR signaling, but the mechanisms of autophagy regulation and its role in TOR-mediated cell growth are unclear. Here, we show that signaling through TOR and its upstream regulators PI3K and Rheb is necessary and sufficient to suppress starvation-induced autophagy in the Drosophila fat body. In contrast, TOR's downstream effector S6K promotes rather than suppresses autophagy, suggesting S6K downregulation may limit autophagy during extended starvation. Despite the catabolic potential of autophagy, disruption of conserved components of the autophagic machinery, including ATG1 and ATG5, does not restore growth to TOR mutant cells. Instead, inhibition of autophagy enhances TOR mutant phenotypes, including reduced cell size, growth rate, and survival. Thus, in cells lacking TOR, autophagy plays a protective role that is dominant over its potential role as a growth suppressor.