细胞自噬及其在鼻咽癌中的作用

Autophagy and its role in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

自噬作为一个重要的自我平衡的细胞回收机制,现逐渐发现在新陈代谢和治疗应激中起了关键作用。它通过消除细胞内过多不必要的蛋白质及受损或衰老的细胞器成分来维持/恢复新陈代谢的稳定。在代谢应激的情况下,自噬被激活。在癌细胞中自噬有两个方面的作用:肿瘤促进作用和肿瘤抑制作用。有功能的自噬可防止会导致遗传不稳定性发生的细胞坏死和炎症反应。另一方面,自噬通过不利代谢环境的循环机制提供能量对肿瘤进程起了重要作用。最近,许多研究表明,自噬在鼻咽癌的治疗中起了重要作用。本文将对自噬所依赖的信号转导途经、自噬与肿瘤的关系、自噬在鼻咽癌治疗中的作用进行综述,以便对自噬功能有个全面的理解。

Autophagy, an important homeostatic cellular recycling mechanism, is now emerging as a crucial player in response to metabolic and therapeutic stresses, which attempts to maintain/restore metabolic homeostasis through the catabolic lysis of excessive or unnecessary proteins and injured or aged organelles. Autophagy is particularly active during metabolic stress. In the cancer cell it fulfils a dual role, having tumor-promoting and tumor-suppressing properties. Functional autophagy prevents necrosis and inflammation, which can lead to genetic instability. On the other hand, autophagy might be important for tumor progression by providing energy through its recycling mechanism during unfavorable metabolic circumstances. Recently, several studies have shown that autophagy play an important role in treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. This review will summarize the signal transduction pathway of autophagy, its relationship with tumor and its role in the nasopharyngeal carcinoma treatment in order to give a comprehensive understanding of the function of autophagy.