Figure 1.

The three main subtypes of autophagy and their implications for multiple tissues and organ systems. Autophagy mainly comprises of three subtypes: microautophagy, chaperone-mediated autophagy and macroautophagy. These are distinguished based on the route and mechanism of cargo delivery to lysosomes, the final degrading organelles. Research over the last decades has elucidated a number of cell and tissue-specific functions that depend on or are critically influenced by autophagy. These functions are present in many organ systems, including the nervous system. The variety of functions of autophagy in different organ systems under physiological conditions is emphasized by the broad clinical manifestations in congenital disorders of autophagy, which manifest as multisystem diseases with prominent CNS pathology. CMA = chaperone-mediated autophagy.