Diabetes

Stem cell 'messages' fast-track healing of diabetic wounds

The increasing prevalence of diabetes worldwide has led to a rise in diabetic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers, which are challenging to treat and can result in amputation. Traditional treatments have limited effectiveness, ...

Health

The negative economics of intermittent fasting

From lots of recent reports—both breathless and scientific— fasting has become a tantalizing path to health. Non-religious fasting can range from 24 hours or more without food to intermittent periods of up to 16 hours ...

Oncology & Cancer

Study: Protein helps prevent breast cancer metastasis

While better screening and improved treatments are leading to better outcomes for patients with breast cancer, 90% of breast cancer deaths are a result of metastasis, or the cancer growing and spreading to other parts of ...

Oncology & Cancer

Study shows leukemia cells activate cellular recycling program

In a recent study, scientists led by Professor Stefan Müller from Goethe University's Institute of Biochemistry II investigated a specific form of blood cancer known as acute myeloid leukemia, or AML. The disease mainly ...

Medical research

Targeting autophagy to enhance memory immune responses

Memory B cells depend on autophagy for their survival, but the protein Rubicon is thought to hinder this process. Researchers from Osaka University have discovered a shorter isoform of Rubicon called RUBCN100, which enhances ...

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Autophagy

In cell biology, autophagy, or autophagocytosis, is a catabolic process involving the degradation of a cell's own components through the lysosomal machinery. It is a tightly regulated process that plays a normal part in cell growth, development, and homeostasis, helping to maintain a balance between the synthesis, degradation, and subsequent recycling of cellular products. It is a major mechanism by which a starving cell reallocates nutrients from unnecessary processes to more-essential processes.

A variety of autophagic processes exist, all having in common the degradation of intracellular components via the lysosome. The most well-known mechanism of autophagy involves the formation of a membrane around a targeted region of the cell, separating the contents from the rest of the cytoplasm. The resultant vesicle then fuses with a lysosome and subsequently degrades the contents.

It was first described in the 1960s, but many questions about the actual processes and mechanisms involved still remain to be elucidated. Its role in disease is not well categorized; it may help to prevent or halt the progression of some diseases such as some types of neurodegeneration and cancer, and play a protective role against infection by intracellular pathogens; however, in some situations, it may actually contribute to the development of a disease.

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