Abstract
Autophagy has important functions in normal physiology to maintain homeostasis and protect against cellular stresses by the removal of harmful cargos such as dysfunctional organelles, protein aggregates and invading pathogens. The deregulation of autophagy is a hallmark of many diseases and therapeutic targeting of autophagy is highly topical. With the complex role of autophagy in disease it is essential to understand the genetic and molecular basis of the contribution of autophagy to pathogenesis. The model organism, Drosophila, provides a genetically amenable system to dissect out the contribution of autophagy to human disease models. Here we review the roles of autophagy in human disease and how autophagy studies in Drosophila have contributed to the understanding of pathophysiology.
Keywords:
Autophagy; Cancer; Drosophila; Drug discovery; Infectious disease; Neurodegeneration.
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
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Review
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Autophagy* / physiology
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Autophagy-Related Proteins / genetics
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Autophagy-Related Proteins / physiology
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Cachexia / etiology
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Cachexia / pathology
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Cell Transformation, Neoplastic
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Conserved Sequence
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DNA Repeat Expansion
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Disease Models, Animal*
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Drosophila Proteins / genetics
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Drosophila Proteins / physiology
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Drosophila melanogaster / genetics
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Drosophila melanogaster / physiology*
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Drug Discovery / methods
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Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor
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Homeostasis
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Humans
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Imaginal Discs / cytology
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Infections / pathology
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Lysosomal Storage Diseases / genetics
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Lysosomal Storage Diseases / pathology
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Mosaicism
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Mutation
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Neoplasms / genetics
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Neoplasms / pathology
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Neoplastic Stem Cells / pathology
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Neurodegenerative Diseases / genetics
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Neurodegenerative Diseases / pathology
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Organ Specificity
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Tumor Suppressor Proteins / genetics
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Tumor Suppressor Proteins / physiology
Substances
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Autophagy-Related Proteins
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Drosophila Proteins
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Tumor Suppressor Proteins