Autophagy is a lysosome-dependent intracellular degradation pathway that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of various human diseases, either positively or negatively impacting disease outcomes depending on the specific context. The majority of medical conditions including cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, infections and immune system disorders and inflammatory bowel disease could probably benefit from therapeutic modulation of the autophagy machinery. Drosophila represents an excellent model animal to study disease mechanisms thanks to its sophisticated genetic toolkit, and the conservation of human disease genes and autophagic processes. Here, we provide an overview of the various autophagy pathways observed both in flies and human cells (macroautophagy, microautophagy and chaperone-mediated autophagy), and discuss Drosophila models of the above-mentioned diseases where fly research has already helped to understand how defects in autophagy genes and pathways contribute to the relevant pathomechanisms.

自噬是一种依赖溶酶体的细胞内降解途径，已与多种人类疾病的发病机制有关，根据具体情况对疾病的结果产生正向或负面影响。包括癌症，神经退行性疾病，感染和免疫系统疾病以及炎症性肠病在内的大多数医学疾病都可能受益于自噬机制的治疗性调节。果蝇凭借其先进的遗传工具包以及人类疾病基因和自噬过程的保守性，它代表了研究疾病机制的优秀模型动物。在这里，我们概述了在果蝇和人类细胞中观察到的各种自噬途径（宏观自噬，微自噬和伴侣介导的自噬），并讨论了上述疾病的果蝇模型，其中果蝇研究已经帮助了解了果蝇中的缺陷如何。自噬基因和途径有助于相关的致病机理。