Autophagy

Overview

Autophagy, as a process of cellular self-degradation, plays a key role in maintaining cell homeostasis and energy balance and has become a new hotspot in obesity treatment in recent years. Autophagy prevents cellular damage, promotes cell survival in the presence of nutrient deficiencies, and responds to cytotoxic stimuli. Autophagy not only plays a role in metabolic diseases such as obesity but also plays an important role in various physiopathological processes such as cellular homeostasis, aging, immunity, tumorigenesis, and neurodegenerative diseases.

The obesity compound library provided by Protheragen contains a wide range of compounds that target the regulation of signaling pathways associated with obesity. Among these, the autophagy-related compound library focuses on compounds that affect the autophagy process and, thus, potentially treat obesity.

Fig.1 Mechanism of autophagy. (Liu, et al., 2023)

Autophagy Pathway Research

Process of Autophagy

Fig.2 The process of autophagy. (Debnath, et al., 2023)

The essence of autophagy is intracellular membrane rearrangement, and the process of autophagy is divided into the following four stages.

• Initiation of autophagy
• Formation of segregation membranes and autophagosomes
• Fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes
• Autophagosome cleavage

Our High-quality Autophagy Compounds

Our company offers a wide range of compounds related to autophagy that affect the autophagy process through different mechanisms. For example, some compounds directly activate or inhibit key proteins of autophagy, such as microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3), beclin 1 (BECN1), etc., while others indirectly affect the autophagy process by regulating the signaling pathways associated with autophagy.

We provide autophagy agonists and inhibitors to activate/inhibit different stages of autophagy occurrence, respectively, so it is convenient for clients to choose the appropriate agonists or inhibitors according to their experimental needs.

Moreover, our superior autophagy compounds are also associated with a large set of receptors and are a great tool to aid in anti-obesity drug development.

Publication

Applications

• Autophagy-related compounds can be used in lipid metabolism regulation studies to improve obesity.
• Autophagy-related compounds could be used for reproductive function improvement and drug-boosting research.
• Autophagy-related compounds can be used for energy metabolism and fat accumulation mechanism research.

Advantages of Our Products

Fig.3 Sperm function assessment. (Mu, et al., 2017)

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the types of autophagy?

   Autophagy includes basal autophagy under physiological conditions and induced autophagy under stress conditions. Autophagy can be categorized into 3 types depending on the encapsulated material and the mode of delivery:

   • Macroautophagy
   • Microautophagy
   • Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA)

   Fig.4 Different pathways of autophagy. (Duraes, et al., 2015)

2. How is autophagy related to apoptosis or necrosis?

   Autophagy mediates apoptosis and necroptosis by engulfing key molecules or serving as a necrosis complex platform, relying on its dynamic function.

   Fig.5 Schematic representation of autophagy-mediated apoptosis and necrosis. (Liu, et al., 2023)

Protheragen provides high-quality autophagy compounds for anti-obesity research to clients worldwide, leveraging our extensive experience in the field of obesity to advance every obesity-related project of our clients. Should you encounter any challenges in your anti-obesity research, please feel free to contact us at any time.

Autophagy Products