Fig. 5
From: Selective autophagy in cancer: mechanisms, therapeutic implications, and future perspectives
Overview of the major proteins of lipophagy. In lipolysis, TG is first hydrolyzed by adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) to generate diacylglycerol (DG). DG is then hydrolyzed by Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) to generate monoacylglycerol (MG), while HSL is phosphorylated by proteins surrounding lipid droplets. Finally, MG is hydrolyzed by Monoacylglycerol lipase (MGL) to yield glycerol and free fatty acids. Lipohagy is defined as selective autophagy degradation of LDs. In the state of nutritional starvation, lipophagy cells are formed, which are composed of Atg5, Atg7, LC3 and Rab families. The PNPLA family has specific molecular motifs associated with LDs and plays a crucial role in LDs decomposition. Autophagosome phagocytes LDs and fuses with lysosome to form autophagosome. The lysosomal lipase expressed by TFEB then hydrolyzes the neutral lipids in LDs