Autophagy is a core molecular pathway for the preservation of cellular and organismal homeostasis. Pharmacological and genetic interventions impairing autophagy responses promote or aggravate disease in a plethora of experimental models. Consistently, mutations in autophagy-related processes cause severe human pathologies. Here, we review and discuss preclinical data linking autophagy dysfunction to the pathogenesis of major human disorders including cancer as well as cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, metabolic, pulmonary, renal, infectious, musculoskeletal, and ocular disorders.

/pdf/autophagy-in-major-human-diseases-5656f0dxta.pdf

Autophagy in major human diseases

Autophagy in inflammation, infection, and immunometabolism.

Autophagy is a process that targets various intracellular elements for degradation. Autophagy can be non-selective - associated with the indiscriminate engulfment of cytosolic components - occurring in response to nutrient starvation and is commonly referred to as bulk autophagy. By contrast, selective autophagy degrades specific targets, such as damaged organelles (mitophagy, lysophagy, ER-phagy, ribophagy), aggregated proteins (aggrephagy) or invading bacteria (xenophagy), thereby being importantly involved in cellular quality control. Hence, not surprisingly, aberrant selective autophagy has been associated with various human pathologies, prominently including neurodegeneration and infection. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in understanding mechanisms governing selective cargo engulfment in mammals, including the identification of ubiquitin-dependent selective autophagy receptors such as p62, NBR1, OPTN and NDP52, which can bind cargo and ubiquitin simultaneously to initiate pathways leading to autophagy initiation and membrane recruitment. This progress opens the prospects for enhancing selective autophagy pathways to boost cellular quality control capabilities and alleviate pathology. 

https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10160582/1/Vargas_The%20mechanisms%20and%20roles%20of%20selective%20autophagy%20in%20mammals_combined.pdf

The mechanisms and roles of selective autophagy in mammals

ORF3a of the COVID-19 virus SARS-CoV-2 blocks HOPS complex-mediated assembly of the SNARE complex required for autolysosome formation.

Macroautophagy and microautophagy are highly conserved eukaryotic cellular processes that degrade cytoplasmic material in lysosomes. Both pathways involve characteristic membrane dynamics regulated by autophagy-related proteins and other molecules, some of which are shared between the two pathways. Over the past few years, the application of new technologies, such as cryo-electron microscopy, coevolution-based structural prediction and in vitro reconstitution, has revealed the functions of individual autophagy gene products, especially in autophagy induction, membrane reorganization and cargo recognition. Concomitantly, mutations in autophagy genes have been linked to human disorders, particularly neurodegenerative diseases, emphasizing the potential pathogenic implications of autophagy defects. Accumulating genome data have also illuminated the evolution of autophagy genes within eukaryotes as well as their transition from possible ancestral elements in prokaryotes. 

/pdf/autophagy-genes-in-biology-and-disease-2wt2vt2u.pdf

Autophagy genes in biology and disease

Sensing and clearance of dysfunctional lysosomes is critical for cellular homeostasis. Here we show that transcription factor EB (TFEB)—a master transcriptional regulator of lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy—is activated during the lysosomal damage response, and its activation is dependent on the function of the ATG conjugation system, which mediates LC3 lipidation. In addition, lysosomal damage triggers LC3 recruitment on lysosomes, where lipidated LC3 interacts with the lysosomal calcium channel TRPML1, facilitating calcium efflux essential for TFEB activation. Furthermore, we demonstrate the presence and importance of this TFEB activation mechanism in kidneys in a mouse model of oxalate nephropathy accompanying lysosomal damage. A proximal tubule-specific TFEB-knockout mouse exhibited progression of kidney injury induced by oxalate crystals. Together, our results reveal unexpected mechanisms of TFEB activation by LC3 lipidation and their physiological relevance during the lysosomal damage response. Nakamura et al. find that the master transcriptional regulator of lysosomal biogenesis and autophagy TFEB is activated following LC3 lipidation during lysosomal damage and show the importance of this mechanism during kidney injury.

LC3 lipidation is essential for TFEB activation during the lysosomal damage response to kidney injury

Lysosomes are digestive organelles in cells containing many hydrolases, and also serve as a signaling hub to integrate intracellular and extracellular inputs; therefore, the integrity of lysosomes is critical for cellular homeostasis. Many agents and conditions can damage lysosomal membranes, which lead to leakage of lysosomal acidic contents into the cytosol thus becoming harmful for cells. Accordingly, cells have developed several defense systems to cope with damaged lysosomes, but underlying mechanisms of each system and their cross-talks are unclear. In our recent study, we found that a master transcription factor regulating autophagy and lysosomal biogenesis, TFEB (transcription factor EB) is activated during lysosomal damage, and this activation depends on an autophagy-independent function of lipidated LC3, which localizes on lysosomes. We further showed that this regulatory mechanism is essential to prevent the progression of the crystal nephropathy that accompanies lysosomal damage.

Autophagy-independent function of lipidated LC3 essential for TFEB activation during the lysosomal damage responses

Autophagy is an evolutionally conserved cytoplasmic degradation pathway in which the double membrane structure, autophagosome sequesters cytoplasmic material and delivers them to lysosomes for degradation. Many autophagy related (ATG) proteins participate in the regulation of the several steps of autophagic process. Among ATGs, ubiquitin-like protein, ATG8 plays a pivotal role in autophagy. ATG8 is directly conjugated on lipid in autophagosome membrane upon induction of autophagy thus providing a good marker to monitor and analyze autophagy process. However, recent discoveries suggest that ATG8 has autophagy independent non-canonical functions and ATG8 positive structures are not always autophagosomes. This review briefly overviews canonical and non-canonical roles of ATG8 and introduce novel function of ATG8 to activate Transcriptional Factor EB(TFEB), a master transcription factor of autophagy and lysosome function during lysosomal damage.

Non-canonical roles of ATG8 for TFEB activation.

/pdf/author-correction-lc3-lipidation-is-essential-for-tfeb-13dbzf8y.pdf

Author Correction: LC3 lipidation is essential for TFEB activation during the lysosomal damage response to kidney injury

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LC3 lipidation is essential for TFEB activation during the lysosomal damage response to kidney injury

Autophagy-independent function of lipidated LC3 essential for TFEB activation during the lysosomal damage responses

Non-canonical roles of ATG8 for TFEB activation.

Author Correction: LC3 lipidation is essential for TFEB activation during the lysosomal damage response to kidney injury