INTERVIEW – The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to the Japanese Yoshinori Oshumi, for his work on autophagy. A cellular process involved in various pathologies.
Despite the recent resignation of two of its members, the committee of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine will still have been able to deliver, this Monday, the name of the 2016 laureate. The prestigious prize goes this year to Yoshinori Ohsumi, for this work on autophagy. This process, which allows cells to degrade some of their components to ensure their survival under stress, was demonstrated in the 1960s. However, it will take almost 30 years, and Yoshinori Ohsumi’s work on yeast de boulanger, to understand the mechanisms involved in this cellular “self-digestion”.
This work has since made it possible to understand the role of autophagy in certain pathologies and to identify possible therapeutic targets. This is particularly the case in oncology. Patrick Auberger, Inserm research director at the Mediterranean Center for Molecular Medicine (C3M) in Nice, returns to Why actor, on the importance of Yoshinori Ohsumi’s work.
When does autophagy start in cells?
Patrick Auberger: Autophagy is a technique of “survival” for the cell. If it is faced with stressful conditions – if the nutrient intake is not sufficient, for example – the cell can initiate this process of self-digestion. The principle is to degrade certain internal components of the cell, to recover elements (amino acids, sugars, nucleic acids, etc.) essential to the basic functions of the cell, and thus prevent death. Work in mice has shown that this process is fundamental in the first hours of life. If autophagy is blocked within 24 hours of birth, the baby mice die.
What are the links between autophagy and cancer therapies?
Patrick Auberger: Autophagy is a double-edged sword: it keeps the cell from dying, but it can sometimes keep harmful cells, such as tumor cells, alive. It has indeed been observed that the installed tumors themselves also use autophagy to survive and develop. But chemotherapy activates autophagic processes. The objective today is therefore to block autophagy in patients treated with chemotherapy in order to maximize the effect of the treatment. After having obtained encouraging experimental results with hydroxychloroquine, around forty clinical trials are currently underway in patients.
Autophagy is also believed to be involved in neurodegenerative diseases …
Patrick Auberger: Indeed, like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. But in this case, autophagy could be a powerful ally. Indeed, these pathologies are characterized by the accumulation of protein clusters in the brain. Stimulating autophagy could help digest these plaques. If today we have all these therapeutic avenues, it is thanks to the work of Yoshinori Ohsumi has devoted a large part of her career to characterizing all the cellular elements that allow the autophagic process to be carried out.
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