Synthetic activators of autophagy

Abstract

Autophagy is a central process for the degradation of intracellular components that work with disorders. The molecular mechanisms underlying this process are extremely difficult to study, since they involve a large number of participants. The main task of autophagy is the redistribution of cellular resources in response to environmental changes, such as starvation. Recent studies show that the regulation of autophagy may be the key to achieving healthy longevity, as well as to create therapeutic agents for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Thus, the developmentof autophagy activators with a detailed mechanism of action is a really important direction for research.Several commercial companies are at various stages of development of such molecules, and some of them have already begun to use autophagy activators in practice.