Seminar

Autophagy and its role in neurodegeneration

Dr Viktor Korolchuk

Efficient protein turnover by cellular degradative pathways is essential for the maintenance of cellular health. Autophagy is one such pathway where cytoplasmic proteins and organelles, destined for breakdown, are engulfed in double-membrane structures called autophagosomes, which fuse with lysosomes for content degradation. It will be discussed how upregulation of autophagy can be used to protect against the toxic insults by enhancing the clearance of the mutant aggregate-prone proteins causing neurodegenerative disorders like Huntington's disease and some lysosomal storage disorders. The data will also be shown demonstrating that impairment of autophagy may be an underlying cause of many neurodegenerative conditions and potential mechanisms for this phenomenon will be suggested.