Life medicinePub Date : 2022-10-11DOI: 10.1093/lifemedi/lnac043
Yiqing Zhang, Xiaoxia Liu, D. Klionsky, B. Lu, Q. Zhong
{"title":"Manipulating Autophagic Degradation in Human Diseases: from Mechanisms to Interventions","authors":"Yiqing Zhang, Xiaoxia Liu, D. Klionsky, B. Lu, Q. Zhong","doi":"10.1093/lifemedi/lnac043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/lifemedi/lnac043","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Targeted degradation, having emerged as a powerful and promising strategy in drug discovery in the past two decades, has provided a solution for many once undruggable targets involved in various diseases. While earlier targeted degradation tools, as exemplified by PROteolysis-TArgeting Chimera (PROTAC), focused on harnessing the ubiquitin-proteasome system, novel approaches that aim to utilize autophagy, a potent, lysosome-dependent degradation pathway, have also surfaced recently as promising modalities. In this Review, we first introduce the mechanisms that establish selectivity in autophagy, which provides the rationales for autophagy-based targeted degradation; we also provide an overview on the panoply of cellular machinery involved in this process, an arsenal that could be potentially harnessed. On this basis, we propose four strategies for designing autophagy-based targeted degraders, including Tagging Targets, Directly Engaging Targets, Initiating Autophagy at Targets, and Phagophore-Tethering to Targets. We introduce the current frontiers in this field, including AUtophagy-TArgeting Chimera (AUTAC), Targeted Protein Autophagy (TPA), AUTOphagy-TArgeting Chimera (AUTOTAC, not to be confused with AUTAC), AuTophagosome TEthering Compound (ATTEC), and other experimental approaches as case studies for each strategy. Finally, we put forward a workflow for generating autophagy-based degraders and some important questions that may guide and inspire the process.","PeriodicalId":74073,"journal":{"name":"Life medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44905345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Life medicinePub Date : 2022-10-08DOI: 10.1093/lifemedi/lnac042
Jun Wang, Xin-Fu Zhou, Yanjiang Wang
{"title":"Continuous antioxidant drug exposure: a bridge from ideal world to real world of therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis","authors":"Jun Wang, Xin-Fu Zhou, Yanjiang Wang","doi":"10.1093/lifemedi/lnac042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/lifemedi/lnac042","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":74073,"journal":{"name":"Life medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45572858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Life medicinePub Date : 2022-10-01DOI: 10.1093/lifemedi/lnac030
Yu Sun, Qingfeng Li, James L Kirkland
{"title":"Targeting senescent cells for a healthier longevity: the roadmap for an era of global aging.","authors":"Yu Sun, Qingfeng Li, James L Kirkland","doi":"10.1093/lifemedi/lnac030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/lifemedi/lnac030","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Aging is a natural but relentless process of physiological decline, leading to physical frailty, reduced ability to respond to physical stresses (resilience) and, ultimately, organismal death. Cellular senescence, a self-defensive mechanism activated in response to intrinsic stimuli and/or exogenous stress, is one of the central hallmarks of aging. Senescent cells cease to proliferate, while remaining metabolically active and secreting numerous extracellular factors, a feature known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype. Senescence is physiologically important for embryonic development, tissue repair, and wound healing, and prevents carcinogenesis. However, chronic accumulation of persisting senescent cells contributes to a host of pathologies including age-related morbidities. By paracrine and endocrine mechanisms, senescent cells can induce inflammation locally and systemically, thereby causing tissue dysfunction, and organ degeneration. Agents including those targeting damaging components of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype or inducing apoptosis of senescent cells exhibit remarkable benefits in both preclinical models and early clinical trials for geriatric conditions. Here we summarize features of senescent cells and outline strategies holding the potential to be developed as clinical interventions. In the long run, there is an increasing demand for safe, effective, and clinically translatable senotherapeutics to address healthcare needs in current settings of global aging.</p>","PeriodicalId":74073,"journal":{"name":"Life medicine","volume":"1 2","pages":"103-119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9869767/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"9191171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Life medicinePub Date : 2022-09-29DOI: 10.1093/lifemedi/lnac040
Tingting Zhou, M. Kiran, K. O. Lui, Q. Ding
{"title":"Decoding liver fibrogenesis with single-cell technologies","authors":"Tingting Zhou, M. Kiran, K. O. Lui, Q. Ding","doi":"10.1093/lifemedi/lnac040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/lifemedi/lnac040","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Liver fibrogenesis is a highly dynamic and complex process that drives the progression of chronic liver disease towards liver failure and end-stage liver diseases. Despite decades of intense studies, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying liver fibrogenesis remain elusive, and no approved therapies to treat liver fibrosis are currently available. The rapid development of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies allows the characterization of cellular alterations under healthy and diseased conditions at an unprecedented resolution. In this Review, we discuss how the scRNA-seq studies are transforming our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of liver fibrosis. We specifically emphasize discoveries on disease-relevant cell subpopulations, molecular events, and cell interactions on cell types including hepatocytes, liver sinusoidal endothelial cells, myofibroblasts and macrophages. These discoveries have uncovered critical pathophysiological changes during liver fibrogenesis. Further efforts are urged to fully understand the functional contributions of these changes to liver fibrogenesis, and to translate the new knowledge into effective therapeutic approaches.","PeriodicalId":74073,"journal":{"name":"Life medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44840855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Life medicinePub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1093/lifemedi/lnac035
Juli Bai, Feng Liu
{"title":"The Yin-Yang Functions of Macrophages in Metabolic Disorders","authors":"Juli Bai, Feng Liu","doi":"10.1093/lifemedi/lnac035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/lifemedi/lnac035","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Macrophages are widely distributed in various metabolic tissues/organs and play an essential role in the immune regulation of metabolic homeostasis. Macrophages have two major functions: adaptive defenses against invading pathogens by triggering inflammatory cytokine release and eliminating damaged/dead cells via phagocytosis to constrain inflammation. The proinflammatory role of macrophages in insulin resistance and related metabolic diseases is well established, but much less is known about the phagocytotic function of macrophages in metabolism. In this review, we review our current understanding of the ontogeny, tissue distribution, and polarization of macrophages in the context of metabolism. We also discuss the Yin-Yang functions of macrophages in the regulation of energy homeostasis. Thirdly, we summarize the crosstalk between macrophages and gut microbiota. Lastly, we raise several important but remain to be addressed questions with respect to the mechanisms by which macrophages are involved in immune regulation of metabolism.","PeriodicalId":74073,"journal":{"name":"Life medicine","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61609238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Life medicinePub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1093/lifemedi/lnac036
T. Cui, Bojin Li, Wei Li
{"title":"NTLA-2001: opening a new era for gene therapy","authors":"T. Cui, Bojin Li, Wei Li","doi":"10.1093/lifemedi/lnac036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/lifemedi/lnac036","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":74073,"journal":{"name":"Life medicine","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41365332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}