Then, what is autophagy flux?
In detail, autophagic flux refers to the whole process of autophagy, including autophagosome formation, maturation, fusion with lysosomes, subsequent breakdown and the release of macromolecules back into the cytosol (Figure 1).
Similarly, how important is autophagy? As an essential process to maintain cellular homeostasis and functions, autophagy is responsible for the lysosome-mediated degradation of damaged proteins and organelles, and thus misregulation of autophagy can result in a variety of pathological conditions in human beings.
Moreover, is autophagy good or bad?
Neither, it is an essential and ongoing cellular process that can be upregulated and downregulated. Both too much and too little autophagy have been associated with disease. Yet, it remains a valuable tool that can be manipulated for therapeutic purposes (1).
How does chloroquine inhibit autophagy?
Chloroquine (CQ), which is frequently used clinically as an antimalarial agent, is a classic inhibitor of autophagy that blocks the binding of autophagosomes to lysosomes by altering the acidic environment of lysosomes, resulting in the accumulation of a large number of degraded proteins in cells (8).
