Autophagy is a highly conservative and multi-component activated energy metabolism and self-renewal mechanism, which plays a crucial regulatory role in maintaining the normal physiological state of cells and is involved in various pathological processes. In recent years, the mechanism study has made great progress in regulating autophagy with effective components of Chinese materia medica(CMM),which are reported to prevent and treat cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic and immune-related diseases. This review outlines the molecular regulation mechanisms of cell autophagy with CMM components in controlling the above-mentioned diseases. There are many relevant reports on the regulatory mechanisms of autophagy in tumor and cardiovascular cells with CMM monomers. The main chemical structural types are alkaloids, saponins, polyphenols, flavonoids and terpenes. And m-TOR pathway is the main mechanism relating to the regulatory mechanisms of autophagy with CMM. Therefore, the regulatory mec-hanisms of cell autophagy become a new research targeting strategy of therapies with CMM. This review provides evidences for the effectiveness and scientificity of CMM in regulating autophagy, in the expectation of providing references for the in-depth studies of CMM in the field of autophagy and the development of natural autophagy regulators.
Keywords: autophagy; effective components of Chinese materia medica; singalling pathway.