Targeting selective autophagy by AUTAC degraders

Autophagy. 2020 Apr;16(4):765-766. doi: 10.1080/15548627.2020.1718362. Epub 2020 Jan 20.

Abstract

Targeted degradation is a promising new modality in drug discovery that makes it possible to reduce intracellular protein levels with small molecules. It is a complementary approach to the conventional protein knockdown typically used in laboratories and may offer a way to approach the currently undruggable human proteome. Recently, the first autophagy-mediated degraders, called AUTACs, were developed based on observations in a xenophagy study.

Keywords: AUTAC; PROTAC; drug discovery; guanylation; mitophagy; targeted degradation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Autophagy / physiology*
  • Drug Discovery*
  • Humans
  • Macroautophagy / physiology*
  • Proteins / metabolism
  • Proteolysis

Substances

  • Proteins

Grants and funding

This work is supported by supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (MEXT, JSPS), KAKENHI (grant numbers JP17K19190, JP18H04604, JP18H04377, JP19H02844).