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Review
. 2017 Mar 21;12(1):57.
doi: 10.1186/s13014-017-0795-y.

Influence of autophagy on the efficacy of radiotherapy

Shing Yau Tam  1 , Vincent Wing Cheung Wu  1 , Helen Ka Wai Law  2
Affiliations
Review

Influence of autophagy on the efficacy of radiotherapy

Shing Yau Tam et al. Radiat Oncol. .

Abstract

Autophagy is an important catabolic process in which cells digest and recycle their own cytoplasmic contents for maintaining cellular homeostasis. Interestingly, autophagy could play both pro-death and pro-survival roles in influencing the development of cancer via various signal pathways. As radiotherapy is one of the main treatment modalities for cancer, we reviewed the effect of autophagy modulations on radiosensitivity and radiotherapy efficacy in various cancer types. The future development of autophagy modifications for improving radiotherapy efficacy and cancer prognosis will also be discussed.

Keywords: Autophagy; Cancer Cell lines; Radiosensitivity; Radiotherapy; Radiotherapy efficacy; Signalling pathway.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Title: An overview of the central autophagy mechanism. The ULK and Beclin 1 protein complexes initiate phagophore formation. Atg5/12/16 and LC3-II are responsible for expansion to autophagosome. Fusion of autophagosome and lysosome produces autolysosome as the final process. Legend: Green arrows represent activating processes for autophagy stimulation and the red arrow represents a repressing process for autophagy inhibition
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Title: In PI3K-Akt-mTOR signaling pathway, PI3K inhibits autophagy via activation of Akt. Akt promotes mTORC1 both directly and indirectly through inhibiting TSC complexes. mTORC1 directly inhibits autophagy as the final step. Legend: Green arrows represent activating or repressing processes for autophagy stimulation and red arrows represent activating or repressing processes for autophagy inhibition
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Title: For UPR signaling pathway, PERK and IRE1 activate autophagy through endoplasmatic reticulum stress. PERK promotes ATF4 and CHOP, which results in the promotion of ATG gene expression. IRE1 activates JNK, which belongs to the MAPK pathway. JNK promotes autophagy through the inhibition of Bcl-2 and activation of Beclin-1. Legend: Green arrows represent activating or repressing processes for autophagy stimulation and the red arrow represent a repressing process for autophagy inhibition
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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