Editorial: Selective and secretory autophagy pathways and molecules in the prevention and treatment of complex endocrine-metabolic diseases of aging

VACCARO, MARIA INES; GONZALEZ, CLAUDIO DANIEL; DE TATA, VINCENZO; QUARLERI, JORGE; BUDINI, MAURICIO FERNANDO

Frontiers in Endocrinology

Frontiers Media S.A.

Lugar: Lausanne; Año: 2023 vol. 14

Complex diseases are caused by a combination of genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. Many degenerative, metabolic, inflammatory diseases, cancers, and infections are included in this group of entities. Autophagy is known to be dysregulated in these pathological situations, some of them related to aging (Zhang et al.). Multiple different functions of the autophagy pathway or specific autophagy proteins are likely to be contributory to novel therapeutic, diagnostic, or preventative strategies (1). Autophagy is a cellular catabolic process that sequesters and delivers cytoplasmic components to the lysosome for degradation. There are three main forms of autophagy: (i) micro-autophagy refers to the direct sequestration of cytosolic components by the lysosome; (ii) the chaperon-mediated autophagy involves the translocation of specific proteins across the lysosome membrane through the receptor LAMP2A; and (iii) macroautophagy, where cargoes are sequestered within a unique double-membrane vesicle called the autophagosome, which fuses with the lysosome to deliver the inner vesicle in the degradative compartment (2).By recycling cytoplasmic constituents, autophagy controls cellular bioenergetics and tissue remodeling. In addition, autophagy allows the selective elimination of misfolded proteins, protein aggregates, damaged organelles, intracellular pathogens, and lipid droplets. This pathway is called selective autophagy and has high relevance in the cell response to disease (1). Independently of the lysosomal degradation, the autophagic machinery can be involved in other non-degradative processes, such as the unconventional secretion by secretory autophagy, the mechanism of phagocytosis, and the regulation of inflammatory signaling (Gonzales et al.). As a result of the broad range of cellular functions, selective and secretory autophagy pathways, as well as autophagic proteins, play a key role in aging and have been linked to a wide range of cancers, infections, neurodegenerative disorders, metabolic diseases, inflammatory diseases, and muscle diseases (3).