Fig. 5.

Key signaling pathways in autophagic cell death. Several growth factors signaling pathways are involved in cancer progression and have close relationships with autophagic cell death. Key growth factor signaling such as EGFR, Akt, MAPK/ERK signaling can negatively regulate autophagic cell death by inhibiting key autophagy factors such as Beclin-1 and AMPK. BNIP3, Bax, Bcl-2 can also participate in autophagic cell death modulation by disturbing Beclin1–Bcl-2 complex. Tumor suppressor p53 can facilitate autophagic cell death directly through beclin1 activation