Ohsumi receives Nobel Prize for Medicine 2016 for discovering the molecular and cell biological pathways of autophagy
Autophagy has been shown to be an essential mechanism by which cells remove defective molecular and cell organelle components, thereby renewing themselves constantly and especially after cell injury.
Dysfunction of this pathway has since been shown to be important in the development of many acute and chronic degenerative diseases, including acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease.
This was reviewed recently in Kidney International and continues to be at the forefront of research directed at the pathophysiology and potential novel avenues of therapeutic interventions for kidney diseases.
Read links to further reading on this topic below.
Autophagy in acute kidney injury by Kaushal and Shah
Autophagy in kidney disease and aging: lessons from rodent models by Lenoir, Tharaux and Huber
