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First published online March 7, 2007

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Neuronal death by consumption

Autophagy – a process in which eukaryotic cells digest their own organelles during development or starvation – has been implicated in the necrotic cell death that occurs in many human neurodegenerative disorders. To investigate this possibility, Tibor Vellai and co-workers have turned to C. elegans and, on p. 1134, they reveal a role for autophagy genes in ion-channel-dependent neurodegeneration in this organism. The authors show that mutational or RNAi-mediated inactivation of the worm autophagy genes unc-51, bec-1 and lgg-1 partly suppresses the degeneration of neurons that is induced by mutations affecting ion channel activity or by neurotoxin treatment. They also show that starvation promotes ion-channel-dependent necrosis whereas knocking down TOR (a kinase required for nutrition signalling) downregulates the autophagy gene cascade and protects neurons from necrotic cell death. Thus, the authors conclude, autophagy genes seem to be involved in neuronal necrotic cell death but, they add, further research is needed to determine whether autophagy itself is involved in neurodegeneration.

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Related articles in JCS:

Influence of autophagy genes on ion-channel-dependent neuronal degeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans

Márton L. Tóth, Péter Simon, Attila L. Kovács, and Tibor Vellai
JCS 2007 120: 1134-1141. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?