| dc.description.abstract | Many researchers, especially those new to the field, need to
determine which criteria are essential for demonstrating
autophagy, either for the purposes of their own research, or in
the capacity of a manuscript or grant review.1 Acceptable
standards are an important issue, particularly considering that
each of us may have his/her own opinion regarding the answer.
Unfortunately, the answer is in part a “moving target” as the
field evolves.2 This can be extremely frustrating for researchers
who may think they have met those criteria, only to find out
that the reviewers of their papers have different ideas. Conversely, as a reviewer, it is tiresome to raise the same objections
repeatedly, wondering why researchers have not fulfilled some
of the basic requirements for establishing the occurrence of an
autophagic process. In addition, drugs that potentially modulate autophagy are increasingly being used in clinical trials, and
screens are being carried out for new drugs that can modulate
autophagy for therapeutic purposes. Clearly it is important to
determine whether these drugs are truly affecting autophagy,
and which step(s) of the process is affected, based on a set of
accepted criteria. Accordingly, we describe here a basic set of
contemporary guidelines that can be used by researchers to
plan and interpret their experiments, by clinicians to evaluate
the literature with regard to autophagy-modulating therapies,
and by both authors and reviewers to justify or criticize an
experimental approach. | en_US |
