Open AccessUnravelling the multifaceted roles of Atg proteins to improve cancer therapy
Author(s) -
Chen Y.,
Liu X.R.,
Yin Y.Q.,
Lee C.J.,
Wang F.T.,
Liu H.Q.,
Wu X.T.,
Liu J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
cell proliferation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.647
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1365-2184
pISSN - 0960-7722
DOI - 10.1111/cpr.12095
Subject(s) - autophagy , carcinogenesis , cancer , microrna , biology , cancer cell , mechanism (biology) , computational biology , cancer therapy , atg8 , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , apoptosis , philosophy , epistemology
Autophagy follows a lysosomal degradation pathway in which a cell digests its own components. It is highly regulated by a limited number of autophagy‐related genes (Atg) and the proteins they encode, that are crucial for cells to undergo the process via modulating autophagsome formation. Recently, accumulating evidence has revealed the core molecular machinery of autophagy; however, intricate relationships between autophagy and cancer remain an enigma. Several studies have shown that Atgs can play an important role in carcinogenesis, by which Atgs may modulate a series of oncogenic and tumour suppressive pathways, implicating micro RNA (mi RNA ) involvement. In this review, we will present the key role of Atgs in deciding the fate of cancer cells, discuss some representative Atgs and their proteins such as ULK , Beclin‐1, and Atg8/ LC 3‐Atg4, which can also be regulated by mi RNA s. Thus, Atgs can be considered to be targets for cancer treatment, which may illuminate the future of cancer therapy.