The process of autophagy was first recognized in the late 1950s and it was thought of as bulk \u201cjunk\u201d removal. Then, dedicated scientists did a little more digging and found there is an amazing methodology to the \u201cjunk\u201d removal. \u00a0It was discovered that there is rhyme and reason for how a cell decides if and when its components should undergo degradation. \u00a0Autophagy is rather specific and aids in cell survival by making sure the cell has essential components during times of flux. \u00a0Autophagy can be selective (i.e. mitophagy) or non-selective (i.e. starvation-induced). \u00a0Using this method, the cell can have non-essential components recycled or send them to onto autophagolysosomes to be degraded. \u00a0It is more efficient for a cell to be able to recycle as much as it can, rather than to wait for new proteins to come into the picture. \u00a0Autophagy is also crucial for clearing out \u201cjunk\u201d such as misfolded or aggregated proteins. Research in autophagy has helped provide a better understanding for how a cell is able to survive even under poor conditions.<\/p>\n
Early research in yeast helped identify which genes are involved in the autophagy process. These genes are highly conserved in yeast, plants and mammals- a clear indication to the importance of autophagy in all organisms.1<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Current research is always evolving and advancing the understanding and implication of autophagy during normal cell function and in disease states.<\/p>\n Autophagy has a few different steps. First there is induction, followed by the initiation phase, where a double membrane starts forming around components to be removed.\u00a0 Elongation and completion seal membrane formation around the material that needs to be degraded, this is now known as autophagosome.\u00a0 Maturation, followed by fusion with lysosome results in the autophagolysosome complex.\u00a0 The final step is degradation.4<\/a>,5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Autophagy is involved in many disease states including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and aging.\u00a0\u00a0 Understanding how selective and induced autophagy are regulated could be a crucial key for potential disease prevention or treatment targets.2<\/a>,3<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 The 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for autophagy research.\u00a0 Clearly, the committee recognized the dedication given to this area, which was once considered to be simple bulk garbage disposal.\u00a0 Thanks to the pioneers in this field we have a much better understanding for how the cell processes material to be degraded and how this process works in several different disease states.
\nMBL has been supporting autophagy research for over twenty years, and has many highly cited products. Click\u00a0here\u00a0to see how MBL International<\/a> can help you in this prize winning field:<\/p>\n