Abstract

Autophagy is becoming an attractive target to treat neurodegenerative diseases involving protein misfolding and abnormal aggregation. However, the mechanisms underlying the precise role of autophagy in the pathology are still unclear. Accumulating evidence indicates that autophagy impairment may actually contribute to the neurodegeneration process. In this chapter, we discuss several examples indicating the therapeutic effects of manipulating (enhancing) autophagy in preclinical models of neurodegeneration, in addition to identifying key molecular alterations in the autophagy pathway at different levels in these diseases. Challenges in the future development of therapeutic strategies to target the autophagy pathway are discussed.