FIGURE 3. The role of autophagy in human disease.
From the following article:
Autophagy fights disease through cellular self-digestion
Noboru Mizushima, Beth Levine, Ana Maria Cuervo & Daniel J. Klionsky
Nature 451, 1069-1075(28 February 2008)
doi:10.1038/nature06639
Degradation, in particular through autophagy and the proteasome, is important in cellular physiology. Autophagy can act as a cytoprotective mechanism to prevent various diseases, and dysfunctional autophagy leads to pathology. In some cases, however, autophagy can be deleterious; for example, some microbes subvert autophagy for replication, and the cytoprotective action can allow cancer cells to resist anti-cancer treatments.
