Most commonly recognized as a catabolic pathway, autophagy is a perplexing mechanism through which a living cell can free itself of excess cytoplasmic components, i.e., organelles, by means of certain membranous vesicles or lysosomes filled with degrading enzymes. Upon exposure to external insult or internal stimuli, the cell might opt to activate such a pathway, through which it can gain control over the maintenance of intracellular components and thus sustain homeostasis by intercepting the formation of unnecessary structures or eliminating the already present dysfunctional or inutile organelles. Despite such appropriateness, autophagy might also be considered a frailty for the cell, as it has been said to have a rather complicated role in tumorigenesis. A merit in the early stages of tumor formation, autophagy appears to be salutary because of its tumor-suppressing effects. In fact, several investigations on tumorigenesis have reported diminished levels of autophagic activity in tumor cells, which might result in transition to malignancy. On the contrary, autophagy has been suggested to be a seemingly favorable mechanism to progressed malignancies, as it contributes to survival of such cells. Based on the recent literature, this mechanism might also be activated upon the entry of engineered nanomaterials inside a cell, supposedly protecting the host from foreign materials. Accordingly, there is a good chance that therapeutic interventions for modulating autophagy in malignant cells using nanoparticles may sensitize cancerous cells to certain treatment modalities, e.g., radiotherapy. In this review, we will discuss the signaling pathways involved in autophagy and the significance of the mechanism itself in apoptosis and tumorigenesis while shedding light on possible alterations in autophagy through engineered nanomaterials and their potential therapeutic applications in cancer.

中文翻译：

---

关于自噬和细胞凋亡在肿瘤发生中的影响的最新评论：通过工程纳米材料可能改变自噬及其在癌症治疗中的重要性

自噬是最常见的分解代谢途径，是一种令人困惑的机制，通过该机制，活细胞可以通过某些充满降解酶的膜囊泡或溶酶体将自身从多余的细胞质成分（即细胞器）中释放出来。在暴露于外部侮辱或内部刺激后，细胞可能会选择激活这种途径，通过该途径它可以控制细胞内成分的维持，从而通过拦截不必要结构的形成或消除已经存在的功能失调或无用的结构来维持体内平衡。细胞器。尽管如此合适，自噬也可能被认为是细胞的弱点，因为据说它在肿瘤发生中具有相当复杂的作用。在肿瘤形成的早期阶段的一个优点，自噬似乎是有益的，因为它具有抑制肿瘤的作用。事实上，关于肿瘤发生的几项研究报告称，肿瘤细胞中的自噬活性水平降低，这可能导致向恶性肿瘤转变。相反，自噬被认为是一种似乎对进展性恶性肿瘤有利的机制，因为它有助于此类细胞的存活。根据最近的文献，这种机制也可能在工程纳米材料进入细胞后被激活，据称可以保护宿主免受外来物质的侵害。因此，使用纳米颗粒调节恶性细胞自噬的治疗干预很有可能使癌细胞对某些治疗方式（例如放射疗法）敏感。在这次审查中，