Bcl-2 family proteins are key regulators of apoptosis and have recently been shown to modulate autophagy. The tumor suppressorBeclin 1has beenproposed to coordinate both apoptosis and autophagy through direct interaction with anti-apoptotic family members Bcl-2 and/or Bcl-XL. However, the molecular basis for this interaction remains enigmatic. Herewe report that Beclin 1 contains a conserved BH...

The Toll-like receptors (TLR) play an instructive role in innate and adaptive immunity by recognizing specific molecular patterns from pathogens. Autophagy removes intracellular pathogens and participates in antigen presentation. Here, we demonstrate that not only TLR4, but also other TLR family members induce autophagy in macrophages, which is inhibited by MyD88, Trif, or Beclin 1 shRNA expres...

Spermidine, a natural polyamine presented widely in mammalian cells, has been implicated to extend the lifespan of several model organisms by inducing autophagy. However, the effect of spermidine against neuronal damage has not yet been fully determined. In this study, neuronal cell injury was induced by treating PC12 cells and cortical neurons with 1 μM staurosporine (STS). We found that STS-i...

Beclin 1 is a promoter gene for autophagy as well as a key factor for regulating tumor cell growth and death. Allelic deletion of Beclin 1 has been observed in certain triple-negative breat cancer (TNBC) cells, and it might be associated with increased proliferation and invasion in TNBC cells. In this study we investigated the relationship between Beclin 1 expression and prognosis for TNBC pati...

Beclin 1 is an essential mediator of autophagy and a regulator of cell growth and cell death. We examined the effect of Beclin 1 overexpression on the action of estradiol (E(2)) and two antiestrogens, raloxifene and 4-hydroxytamoxifen, in estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha)-positive MCF-7 breast cancer cells. [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation studies showed that Beclin 1-overexpressing cells (MCF-7 ...

Injury to airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells hallmarks the pathological progression of asthma, a chronic inflammatory airway disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play essential roles in the development of asthma as well as airway remodeling. Here we studied the involvement of miRNAs in the regulation of autophagic survival of ASM cells and airway disorder. We analyzed autophagy-associated factors LC3 and ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the expression and significance of microsomal prostaglandin synthase-1 (mPGES-1) and Beclin-1 in the development of prostate cancer (PCa). Immunohistochemistry was performed on paraffin-embedded sections with rabbit polyclonal against mPGES-1 and Beclin-1 in 40 PCa, 40 benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and 10 normal prostate specimens for this purpose. ...

BACKGROUND Autophagy is a self-catabolic mechanism that degrades unnecessary cellular components through lysosomal enzymes. Beclin-1, an autophagy-related protein, establishes the first connection between autophagy and tumorigenesis. The purpose of this study is to assess the Beclin-1 expression pattern and to determine its prognostic significance in patients with malignant canine mammary tumor...

Macroautophagy (hereafter termed autophagy) is a highly evolutionarily conserved pathway that degrades intracellular components such as damaged organelles in lysosome. Autophagy occurs at low basal levels in virtually all types of cells, which is required for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Beclin 1 protein, encoded by the beclin 1 gene, plays a central role in the regulation of autoph...

W e read with great interest the letter of Fava and colleagues, who challenge the conclusions of our article published in EMBO Reports (2013) [1]. Our work described a role for Beclin-1 in chromosome congression and outer kinetochore assembly. We demonstrated that this unexpected role of Beclin-1 is independent of its association with the PI3K-III complex and its well-documented role in autopha...