Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
Trends Cell Biol. 2011 Jul;21(7):387-92. doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2011.03.007. Epub 2011 May 10.
The therapeutic potential of autophagy for the treatment cancer and other diseases is beset by paradoxes stemming from the complexity of the interactions between the apoptotic and autophagic machinery. The simplest question of how autophagy acts as both a protector and executioner of cell death remains the subject of substantial controversy. Elucidating the molecular interactions between the processes will help us understand how autophagy can modulate cell death, whether autophagy is truly a cell death mechanism, and how these functions are regulated. We suggest that, despite many connections between autophagy and apoptosis, a strong causal relationship wherein one process controls the other, has not been demonstrated adequately. Knowing when and how to modulate autophagy therapeutically depends on understanding these connections.
自噬在治疗癌症和其他疾病方面的治疗潜力受到了来自凋亡和自噬机制之间相互作用的复杂性所带来的悖论的困扰。自噬如何既是细胞死亡的保护者又是执行者的最简单问题仍然是大量争议的主题。阐明这些过程之间的分子相互作用将帮助我们了解自噬如何调节细胞死亡、自噬是否真的是一种细胞死亡机制以及这些功能是如何被调节的。我们认为，尽管自噬和凋亡之间有许多联系，但一个过程控制另一个过程的强有力的因果关系尚未得到充分证明。了解何时以及如何通过调节自噬来进行治疗取决于对这些联系的理解。
