自噬调控肾脏衰老的分子机制及中药的干预作用

Molecular mechanisms of autophagy in regulating renal aging and interventional effects of Chinese herbal medicine

衰老是生物体在遗传和环境等多种因素共同作用下而逐渐发生的组织、器官功能性衰退。自噬是真核细胞由溶酶体介导而降解细胞质成分的过程。肾脏是典型的衰老靶器官。自噬可以调控肾脏衰老,自噬水平降低就会加速肾脏衰老,反之,自噬水平升高就能延缓肾脏衰老。在这一肾脏衰老的调控过程中,哺乳动物雷帕霉素靶蛋白(mammalian target of rapamycin,mTOR)及其相关信号途径,包括腺苷酸活化蛋白激酶(adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase,AMPK)/mTOR、磷脂酰肌醇3-激酶(phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase,PI3 K)/丝氨酸-苏氨酸激酶(serine-threonine kinase,Akt)/mTOR、AMPK/沉默信息调节因子1(silent information regulation 1,Sirt1)和转化生长因子β(transforming growth factorβ,TGF-β)等通路发挥了重要作用。在体内调控这些信号途径的关键信号分子就可以干预肾脏衰老。一些经典的补肾、活血类中药及其提取物,如冬虫夏草(Cordyceps sinensis)、姜黄素(curcumin)、白藜芦醇(resveratrol)等对肾脏衰老和/或肾脏自噬具备有益的影响。因此,基于自噬调控的分子机制揭示中药抗肾脏衰老的药理作用是今后的发展方向之一。

Aging is the gradual functional recession of the living tissues or organs caused by a variety of genetic and environmental factors together. Autophagy is a process of degrading cytoplasmic components mediated by lysosomes in eukaryotic cells. Kidney is a typical target organ of aging. Autophagy regulates renal aging. Decrease in autophagy can accelerate renal aging,whereas,increase in autophagy can delay renal aging. During the process of regulating renal aging,the mammalian target of rapamycin（ mTOR） and its related signaling pathways including the adenosine monophosphate activated protein kinase（ AMPK）/mTOR,the phosphatidylinositol3-kinase（ PI3K）/serine-threonine kinase（ Akt）/mTOR,the AMPK/silent information regulation 1（ Sirt1） and transforming growth factor β（ TGF-β） play the important roles in renal aging. Regulating the key signaling molecules in these pathways in vivo can control renal aging. Some Chinese herbal medicine（ CHM） and their extracts with the effects of nourishing kidney or activating stasis,such as Cordyceps sinensis,curcumin and resveratrol have the beneficial effects on renal aging and/or autophagy. Therefore,revealing the pharmacological effects of CHM in anti-renal aging based on the molecular mechanisms of autophagy will become one of the development trends in the future study.