Role of autophagy in islet β cells: A novel target for diabetes’ therapy / 中国临床药理学与治疗学

ABSTRACT

Autophagy is a catabolism process in which lysosomes degrade damaged organelles, protein aggregates and recover nutrients. Studies have shown that autophagy could protect the structure and function of islet β cell and maintaining normal secretion of insulin. In addition, autophagy plays important roles in the occurrence and development of diabetes mellitus by reducing oxidative stress, preventing apoptosis and removing ubiquitination protein aggregates. Therefore, autophagy may be a new target for the prevention and treatment of diabetes. At present, hypoglycemic drugs have been proved to play positive roles by regulating autophagy including thiazolidine dione and guanidine. Therefore, this paper will review autophagy definition, the role of autophagy in diabetes mellitus and autophagy-related hypoglycemic drugs, providing a new direction for clinical treatment of diabetes.