Canonical and Noncanonical Autophagy Pathways in Microglia

Abstract

Besides the ubiquitin-proteasome system, autophagy is a major degradation pathway within cells. It delivers invading pathogens, damaged organelles, aggregated proteins, and other macromolecules from the cytosol to the lysosome for bulk degradation. This so-called canonical autophagy activity contributes to the maintenance of organelle, protein, and metabolite homeostasis as well as innate immunity. Over the past years, numerous studies rapidly deepened our knowledge on the autophagy machinery and its regulation, driven by the fact that impairment of autophagy is associated with several human pathologies, including cancer, immune diseases, and neurodegenerative disorders.