autophagy-exosome.com
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autophagy and exosome
Autophagy is a self-degradation pathway, in which cytoplasmic material is sequestered in double-membrane vesicles and delivered to the lysosome for degradation. It plays a homeostatic function. Autophagy was discovered in 1960’s but studies failed to yield any significant advances in understanding of this fundamental pathway of degradation. Its importance was recognized after Yoshinori Ohsumi's research results and won the 2016 Nobel Prize. His discoveries detailed the mechanisms of autophagy that led to a better understanding of Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease. Cells use autophagy to get rid of damaged proteins and organelles to counteract the negative effects of ageing on the body. There still lots of mysterious effects remain unknown.
(1) Autophagy won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016
(2) How cells recycle to survive.
Exosomes are formed by inward budding of late endosomes. These small vesicles (30-100 nm) were discovered more than 30 years ago. Scientists assumed the exosomes were working as garbage bags only during cell re-cycling process. It is until lately they found these tiny nanoparticles may offer many new paths to cell-cell communication, diagnostic biomarkers and managing different diseases. Exosomes also exploded in popularity because companies developing exosome-based products achieved promising results.
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