The Role of Autophagy in Cancer
A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Physiology and Pathology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 May 2023) | Viewed by 2067
Special Issue Editors
Interests: autophagy; extracellular vesicles; exosomes; cancer
Interests: cell signalling; apoptosis; mTOR; AMPK
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: molecular cell biology; cell signaling; molecular cancer biology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Autophagy is a self-degradative process that is important for balancing sources of energy at critical times in development, and in response to nutrient stress. Autophagy also plays a housekeeping role in removing misfolded or aggregated proteins, clearing damaged organelles (e.g., mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, peroxisomes), as well as eliminating intracellular pathogens. Its role in cancer therapy is particularly important.
Indeed, although it is well-accepted that autophagy is vital in several diseases, the majority of clinical studies that involve deliberate attempts to manipulate autophagy have been in cancer therapy, almost always in patients with advanced disease. It is felt that autophagy is an important mechanism to prevent cancer development in both cell-autonomous and non-cell-autonomous methods. Autophagy maintains normal cell homeostasis through the removal of oncogenic protein substrates, toxic unfolded proteins and damaged organelles. This helps to prevent chronic cellular damage and transition into a cancer-initiating cell. Many studies demonstrate that autophagy supplies sufficient nutrients that enable cancer cell growth. However, some studies have indicated that autophagy also suppresses tumor growth, initiation, and development.
In addition, crosslinks between exosome and autophagy pathways contribute to tumorigenesis. The exosome biogenesis pathway is linked to autophagy in different ways, including the fusion of autophagic vesicles with the lysosome to degrade cargo, where autophagy-related proteins may also contribute to exosome generation and secretion. The autophagic proteins have potential as potential cancer biomarkers.
Dr. Jafar Rezaie
Dr. Elif Damla Arisan
Dr. Pınar Obakan Yerlikaya
Dr. Yunus Akkoç
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- autophagy
- cancer
- exosomes
- cell death
- homeostasis
- tumor
- tumorigenesis
- tumor microenvironment
