Is Autophagy Counterpart or Cooperator of Cell Suicide?

Programmed cell death (PCD) does not confined to apoptosis. Recent studies have provided evidences of alternative PCD, autophagy. Autophagy, generally, is involved in the cell survival as an adaptive mechanism against various stress. However, autophagy also contributes to cell demise, and that is called type II PCD as a counterpart of type I PCD, apoptosis. The recent discovery of the mechanisms of autophagy, coupled with the molecular switch between autophagy and apoptosis, has led to major new strategy for cancer treatment. The functional relationships between apoptosis and autophagy are independent or dependent of each other, suggesting that both signaling pathways share common pathway or link at one step and switch each other. The present review discusses some aspects of autophagy including molecular mechanisms, morphological features, and physiological functions with relation to other signaling pathways, apoptosis and ER stress, and also its possible implications in diseases.