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. 2022 Jan 1;18(3):970–982. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.65979

Figure 4.

Figure 4

CARD9 protects the heart by inhibiting apoptosis and activating autophagy. CARD9 expressed on cardiomyocytes inhibits apoptosis and promotes autophagy. In CARD9-mediated anti-apoptosis, CARD9 can bind to Apaf-1 to suppress the formation of the apoptosome complex (Apaf-1/procaspase-9), thus inhibiting caspase-9 cleavage-mediated apoptosis. In CARD9-mediated autophagy, CARD9 binds to Rubicon, preventing Rubicon binding to UVRAG for avoiding the formation of a complex with Vps16 or beclin-1/PI3KC3, since Vps16 or beclin-1/PI3KC3 is able to directly or indirectly stimulate autophagosome maturation. Then Rab7, a Rab GTPase superfamily member that promotes the maturation or fusion of the autophagosome with the lysosome, is activated to promote autophagy for the degradation of unnecessary components.