Figure 2.

Bacteria and autophagy interplay in cancer cells. The bacterium (such as P. gingivalis) resides in a bacterium-containing vacuole (or phagosome) after invasion of host cells. Phagophore is assembled and starts to elongate to enclose cytoplasmic components on the stimulation of autophagy to form autophagosome. And autophagosome serves as a replicative niche in which they are not eliminated. In addition, some bacterium toxicity is degraded in the autolysosome generated by fusing autophagosome and lysosome. In NHSCC, autophagy regulates the secretion of IL6 and IL8 from CAFs, facilitating HNSCC migration. And paracrine secretion of IL6, IL8, and basic fibroblast growth factors promotes CAF autophagy, which is further maintained through IL6 and IL8 autocrine feedback.