The Research of Autophagy and Anti-Aging

Abstract

Aging is the accumulative process of degenerative changes and metabolic waste products in vivo and the resulting functional failure of body, which can be classified as individual aging and cell aging, while cell aging is the premise of individual aging. Anti-aging is the research topic drilled all the time, and recently the autophagy is proved as a potent mechanism of resisting cell aging. Current studies have concluded that autophagy as a important physiological process of autologous cellular waste degradation help cells maintain a healthy state, resist oxidative stress by clearing damaged mitochondria and proteins, thereby cell aging is suppressed, otherwise, the inhibition of autophagy induces muscle atrophy, neuromuscular junction degeneration, oxidative stress, mitochondria dysfunction, and precocious aging. And autophagy can be induced by spermidine and overexpression of ATG5 and other autophagy-related factors. In this review, we will summarize some studies about autophagy and aging, which may provide some information for curing diseases during aging.