Figure 3.

Potential therapeutic targets in modulating autophagy in the treatment or prevention of infectious diseases. (1) Inhibition of microbial virulence factors that evade or subvert host autophagy. (2) Stimulation of autophagy with pharmacological agents (i.e., rapamycin or novel compounds such as SMERs, small molecule enhancers of rapamycin-induced autophagy). (3) Autophagy regulation through activation of innate immunity signaling receptors. (4) Vaccine enhancement by targeting antigens to the autophagy pathway by fusion with the autophagy protein, LC3. (5) Selective inhibition of microbial autophagy in eukaryotic pathogens that utilize their own autophagy as a virulence pathway