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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Dec 10.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2012 Sep;11(9):709–730. doi: 10.1038/nrd3802

Table 3.

Autophagy-modulating strategies and possible therapeutic targets

Indications or targets Therapeutic strategy Refs

  • Ageing and longevity

  • Metabolic syndrome

  • Neurodegenerative proteinopathies (such as Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease)

  • Infections resulting from xenophagy substrates (such as Group A Streptococcus pyogenes, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Salmonella enterica and alphaviruses)

 Enhance autophagy 9, 38, 43–45,
47–49,
138–148

  • Certain infectious diseases

 Modify adaptor proteins to increase substrate affinities: for example, phosphorylation of optineurin to enhance S. enterica clearance 174

  • Listeria monocytogenes ActA, Shigella flexneri IscB and HSV-1 ICP34.5

 Inhibit bacterial or viral virulence factors that perturb autophagy 140

  • Existing tumours (with lysosomotropic agents)

  • Hepatitis B

 Inhibit autophagy 71, 72, 74, 90,
104, 105,
107, 165

  • Brucella abortus

 Inhibit specific autophagy proteins 163

  • Certain cancers

 Downregulate p62 97, 98

ActA, Listeria monocytogenes actin assembly-inducing protein; HSV-1, herpes simplex virus type 1; ICP34.5, HSV-1 neurovirulence protein ICP34.5; p62, ubiquitin-binding protein p62.