Figure 12. A hypothetical processing schema of autophagy in cytoplasm⁴⁹ and prion infection. At early stage, PrP^Sc enter the host cells and is delivered to the endosomes, and then the endosomes can fuse directly with lysosomes or fuse with autophagosomes to form amphisomes and finally fuse with lysosomes. At terminal stage, the accumulation of PrP^Sc in lysosomes and cytoplasm induced cell stress and overactive autophagic response.