Novel Therapies Based on Autophagy Modulation: Targets, Mechanisms, and Delivery Approaches
A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Drug Targeting and Design".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 148
Special Issue Editors
Interests: neuroscience; neuropharmacology; neurodegenerative disorders; traumatic brain injury; animal models; behavior; neurogenomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce a Special Issue of Pharmaceutics entitled “Novel Therapies Based on Autophagy Modulation: Targets, Mechanisms, and Delivery Approaches”.
Autophagy as a process of segregation and degradation of cellular material with a subsequent use of monomers for biosynthetic and/or reparative purposes. It plays a role in cellular survival but in some minor cases of over-stimulation, it can lead to cell death. It is sometimes called a "double-edged sword". The main autophagy regulator is the mTOR protein (mammalian Target of Rapamycin), which negatively regulates autophagy. Under normal conditions, autophagy is inhibited by mTOR, while mTOR dephosphorylation leads to autophagy activation. Furthermore, non-canonical pathways independent of the mTORC1-ULK1-PI3KC3 complex and of ATG5 or ATG7 also exist.
In general, the activation of autophagy enables cell survival. This mechanism of cell repair is considered as a core one for neurons whose proliferative potential is extremely limited. Hence, the induction of autophagy is regarded as a prospective approach to the treatment of neurodegeneration. Indeed, autophagy inducers produce neuroprotective effects in cellular and animal models of different neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, for some inducers, clinical trials have already started. On the other hand, in the early stages of tumor development, autophagy inhibits tumor growth, while later on in oncology progression, it promotes the survival of tumor cells. Therefore, effective means of suppressing autophagy for the treatment of routine cancer should be considered and tested.
This Special Issue intends to highlight recent progress in the field. We welcome all types of articles providing new insights from experimental models and human studies about treatment approaches based on autophagy modulation, with a focus on targets for pharmacological intervention, mechanisms, delivery approaches, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, bioavailability, and other issues related to the pharmaceutics of autophagy-modulating drugs.
Dr. Maria Tikhonova
Dr. Alexander B. Pupyshev
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- autophagy
- neurodegeneration
- neuroprotection
- mTOR
- oncology
- pharmacodynamics
- pharmacokinetics
- anticancer therapy
