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. 2019 Dec 13;27(3):843–857. doi: 10.1038/s41418-019-0474-7

Fig. 2. The interplay between autophagy and apoptosis.

Fig. 2

Autophagy and apoptosis interact through the control of multiple proteins. BH3-only proteins disrupt the interaction of Bcl-2 and Beclin 1. This allows Beclin 1 to stimulate autophagy through Vps34 and Bcl-2 to inhibit apoptosis through interaction with Bax/Bax. Autophagy controls cellular levels of FOXO3. Increased FOXO3 stimulates autophagy regulation genes to induce autophagy and reduce overall FOXO3 levels. If there is continued presence of elevated FOXO3, it results in increased transcription of PUMA, which is then free to block with interaction between Bcl-2 and Bax/Bak. Once Bax/Bak are released, they can permeabilize mitochondria resulting in effector caspase activation and apoptotic cell death.