Figure 2.

A schematic illustration of the role of NOR1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells autophagy-apoptosis crosstalk in oxidative stress. Oxidative stress (ROS) stimulates the expression and activity of HSF1 and NRF1 transcription factor, which bind to NOR1 promoter and promote NOR1 expression. Elevated NOR1 protein inhibits Beclin 1 and ATG3 protein level and led to dysfunction of autophagy. NOR1 protein also translocate to mitochondrion and increase Bax/Bcl-xL ratio of mitochondrion, thus led to increase of the permeability of mitochondrion outer membrane and lease of cell death inducing protein Smac which in turn lead to activation of caspase cascade.