Autophagy – molecular mechanism, apoptosis and cancer

Autophagy is a catabolic process involving the degradation of long-lived proteins and organelles through the lysosomal machinery. In eukaryotic cells, among the three types of autophagy the most extensively studied is macroautophagy. Macroautophagy (hereafter referred to as autophagy) is characterized by sequestration of bulk cytoplasm in double-membrane vesicles, called autophagosomes, which ultimately fuse with lysosomes, resulting in degradation of their contents. Autophagy is responsible for the maintenance of intracellular homeostasis and enables cell survival under stress conditions. However, this process is also involved in the pathogenesis of diverse diseases, including cancers. In the cancer cell, autophagy plays a dual role, as a mechanism responsible for protecting or killing the cell. In most cases chemotherapy-induced autophagy in tumor cells is a prosurvival response which potentially leads to development of drug resistance. However, autophagy can also lead to cell death, thus enhancing treatment efficacy. It is important for the anticancer therapy to find the type of cancer cells which are susceptible to autophagy and to determine whether the autophagy induced by the applied therapy leads to cells' death or their survival and subsequently to therapy resistance. In this review, the molecular mechanism of macroautophagy and the most important signaling transduction pathways involved in regulation of this process in cancer cells are presented. The dual function of autophagy in tumorigenesis and the implications of autophagy modulation for cancer therapy are also discussed.