Latest Autophagy Stories

A new finding in basic science should trigger a "change in thinking" about how cancer drugs might be developed and tested for maximum effectiveness, says Louis M. Weiner, M.D., director of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a "Clinical Implications of Basic Research" article titled Tumor-Cell Death, Autophagy, and Immunity published in the March 22 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). An internationally known expert in immunotherapy research, Weiner was...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Blocking autophagy – the process of "self-eating" within cells – is turning out to be a viable way to enhance the effectiveness of a wide variety of cancer treatments. Autophagy increases in cancer cells. Normally, it serves as a survival pathway, allowing a cell to recycle damaged proteins when it's under stress and reuse the damaged parts to fuel further growth. It is believed, that cancer cells might be addicted to autophagy, since this innate response may be...

Penn oncologist presents results of new approach to fighting cancer at annual AAAS meeting Blocking autophagy -- the process of "self-eating" within cells -- is turning out to be a viable way to enhance the effectiveness of a wide variety of cancer treatments. Specifically, blocking the action of an acidic inner cell part, which acts like a stomach and chews up proteins for recycling, is the main attack strategy, says Ravi K. Amaravadi, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine at the...

The health benefits of exercise on blood sugar metabolism may come from the body's ability to devour itself, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in the journal Nature. Autophagy is a process by which a cell responds to starvation and other stresses by degrading damaged or unneeded parts of itself to produce energy. It is sometimes called the cell's housekeeping pathway. "Exercise is known to have many health benefits but the mechanisms have been unclear. Autophagy is also...

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered that cancer cells tap into a natural recycling system to obtain the energy they need to keep dividing. In a study with potential implications for cancer treatments, Einstein researchers used genetic manipulation to turn off this recycling system within the walls of cells and stop both tumor growth and metastasis (cancer spread). The findings were published in today's online edition of Science...

Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI) have discovered a key mechanism responsible for selectively degrading aggregates of ubiquitinated proteins from the cell. Their findings indicate that the capture and removal of such aggregates is mediated by the phosphorylation of a protein called p62, opening the door to new avenues for treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease. One of the most important activities of a cell is the...

All cells in our body have a system that can handle cellular waste and release building blocks for recycling. The underlying mechanism is called autophagy and literally means "self-eating". Many cancer cells have increased the activity of this system and the increased release of building blocks equip the cancer cells with a growth advantage and can render them resistant towards treatment. "We have discovered a small molecule that can block autophagy in different cancer cells and...

Researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) have discovered that an ancient pathway called autophagy also mobilizes and exports cholesterol from cells. A team led by Yves Marcel, PhD, Director of the HDL Biology Laboratory, UOHI, has shown that autophagy, a pathway preserved during evolution, functions to engulf and digest cholesterol accumulated in artery walls. This process facilitates the removal of cholesterol and may provide an entirely new target to reverse...

Sanford-Burnham researchers unravel how the interplay between two cellular processes—autophagy and lipid metabolism—influences lifespan in C. elegans worms Aging is generally accepted as a universal fact of life, but how do humans and other organisms age at the molecular level? At Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), a team led by Malene Hansen, Ph.D., uses a type of worm called Caenorhabditis elegans to work out the molecular underpinnings of the aging...

New Findings Could Have Important Implications for Current Cancer Treatments In a joint research effort with researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and with help from scientists at The University of Pennsylvania, The University of Minnesota, and the National Institutes of Health, investigators from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have defined a specific protein complex that allows cells to rid themselves of damaged mitochondria, which are the energy...