The dual role of autophagy in cancer



: Eskelinen EL

Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

: 2011

: Current Opinion in Pharmacology

: CURRENT OPINION IN PHARMACOLOGY

: CURR OPIN PHARMACOL

: 11

: 4

: 294

: 300

: 7

: 1471-4892

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coph.2011.03.009


Autophagy is a mechanism for the degradation of cytoplasmic material, damaged organelles and aggregate-prone proteins in lysosomes. Recent evidence indicates that autophagy is a tumor suppressor mechanism, which is connected to its role in the clearance of the scaffold protein p62/SQSTM1 and prevention of oxidative stress and genomic instability. However, since autophagy is a survival mechanism, cancer cells can also exploit it to survive nutrient limitation and hypoxia that often occur in solid tumors. Tumor cells can also upregulate autophagy as a response to cancer treatment, and recent studies show that inhibition of autophagy can enhance the killing of tumor cells after treatment. Interestingly, the FK506-binding protein 51 plays a role in the autophagy-linked radiation resistance of malignant melanoma.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 22:56