Autophagy is a devouring process during which cytoplasmic proteins, organelles, or other contents are phagocytized and delivered into an autophagosome, which then fuses with a lysosome to become an autolysosome. Autophagy is involved in various human diseases, including cancers, and is triggered and regulated by different signaling pathways under various stimuli such as oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is caused by excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS). It is well known that mitochondria are the primary cellular sources of ROS, which play important roles in the induction of cell death after radiation treatment. It is unknown whether ROS participate in autophagy regulation, and the underlying mechanism is still unclear. In this review, the authors focus on the association between mitochondrial stress and autophagic cell death. They also discuss the roles of ROS and the lysosomal-mitochondrial axis.
Keywords: autophagy; cell death; mitochondria; reactive oxygen species.