Autophagy and Autoimmunity: From Cells to Immunity

Autophagy is a fundamental cellular process that involves the degradation and recycling of cellular components like damaged organelles and proteins. This process is essential to maintain cellular homeostasis and plays both protective and pathogenic roles. Autophagy contributes to the elimination of self-antigens and helps in regulating immune responses. It clears intracellular pathogens and antigens, promoting immune tolerance and preventing the activation of autoreactive immune cells. A dysregulation of this process can lead to the accumulation of self-antigens and aberrant immune responses, triggering autoimmunity. Dysfunctional autophagy has been implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. Understanding the intricate relationship between autophagy and autoimmunity is crucial for developing therapeutic strategies. Modulating autophagic pathways presents a potential avenue for treating autoimmune diseases, either by enhancing autophagy to promote tolerance or by inhibiting autophagy to suppress aberrant immune responses. Further research into the role of autophagy in autoimmunity holds promise for uncovering novel therapeutic targets and improving patient outcomes. The book aims to shed light on some of the unexplored aspects of autophagy and autoimmunity and the recent researches in this field. Such selected concepts that redefine autoimmunity have been presented in it. Through this book, we attempt to further enlighten the readers about the new concepts in this field.