State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy and Cancer Center, West China Hospital, West China Medical School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2011 Sep;43(9):1263-6. doi: 10.1016/j.biocel.2011.05.010. Epub 2011 May 26.
Autophagy (macroautophagy), an evolutionarily conserved lysosomal degradation process, is implicated in a wide variety of pathological processes including cancer. Autophagy plays the Janus role in regulating several survival or death signaling pathways that may decide the fate of cancer cell. Accumulating evidence has revealed the core molecular machinery of autophagy in tumor initiation and progression; however, the intricate relationships between autophagy and cancer are still in its infancy. In this review, we summarize several key survival/death pathways such as mTOR subnetwork, Beclin 1 interactome, and p53 signaling that may play the crucial roles for the regulation of the autophagy-related cancer networks. Therefore, a better understanding of the relationships between autophagy and cancer may ultimately allow cancer biologists and clinicians to harness core autophagic pathways for the discovery of potential novel drug targets.
自噬（巨自噬），一种进化上保守的溶酶体降解过程，与包括癌症在内的多种病理过程有关。自噬在调节多种生存或死亡信号通路中扮演着两面角色，这些信号通路可能决定癌细胞的命运。越来越多的证据揭示了自噬在肿瘤发生和发展中的核心分子机制；然而，自噬与癌症之间的复杂关系仍处于起步阶段。在这篇综述中，我们总结了几个关键的生存/死亡信号通路，如 mTOR 亚网络、Beclin 1 相互作用体和 p53 信号通路，它们可能在调节与自噬相关的癌症网络中发挥关键作用。因此，更好地理解自噬与癌症之间的关系可能最终使癌症生物学家和临床医生能够利用核心自噬途径来发现潜在的新药物靶点。
