Autophagy in Human Health and Disease

Authors:
Top Cited Papers
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Choi et al. (Feb. 14 issue)1 describe autophagy activation in several human diseases. However, a worthy point was missed, since autophagic function in autoimmune diseases was not considered. A growing body of evidence provides support for the involvement of autophagy in immunity and autoimmunity.2,3 Indeed, autophagy is known to have a role in thymic selection of T cells, survival of B cells, immune tolerance, and antigen presentation.2 It enables intracellular self-antigens to enter major-histocompatibility-complex class II pockets, which are subsequently recognized by activated T cells. Accordingly, autophagic dysfunction may promote the development of systemic autoimmune diseases such as lupus,4 and a failure in autophagy may play a role in autoinflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as the tumor necrosis factor receptor–associated periodic syndrome and Crohn's disease.3,5 Moreover, several allelic variants of autophagy-related genes have been linked to autoimmunity4 and autoinflammation.2