ArticleAutophagy2010
Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy.
Article in Autophagy, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 152 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
152 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 310 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychological and Psychiatric Consequences of Prolonged Fasting: Neurobiological, Clinical, and Therapeutic Perspectives.Nutrients · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of fasting-mimicking diet on markers of autophagy and metabolic health in human subjects.GeroScience · 2026Trial
- Intermittent fasting and a no-sugar diet for Long COVID symptoms: a randomized crossover trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Weight loss-independent changes in human growth hormone during water-only fasting: a secondary evaluation of a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Trial
- Impact of Dietary Intervention on Serum Neurofilament Light Chain in Multiple Sclerosis.Neurology(R) neuroimmunology & neuroinflammation · 2022Trial
- Effects of eight weeks of time-restricted feeding (16/8) on basal metabolism, maximal strength, body composition, inflammation, and cardiovascular risk factors in resistance-trained males.Journal of translational medicine · 2016Trial
- Increasing autophagy with fasting and diet: separating fact from fiction.Biochemical Society transactions · 2026Review
- Lysosomes contribute to the synthesis of tricarboxylic acid-related metabolites in the hippocampus.Life metabolism · 2026Article
- Autophagy in Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: Beyond the Protective Paradigm.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Autophagy in ischemic stroke: from cellular survival mechanism to pathological damage.Metabolic brain disease · 2026Review
- Interplay Between Autophagy, Cellular Senescence, and Brain Aging: Neuroprotective Implications of Intermittent Fasting.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- The impact of exercise on brain mitochondrial health and its relevance to Alzheimer's disease.Brain and environment · 2026Article
- Regulation of autophagy-mediated pathways by diet, physical activity, and sleep in Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Modulating the Gut-Nerve Axis and Inflammation: A Narrative Review of Dietary Patterns in Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy.Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity : targets and therapy · 2026Review
- Intermittent fasting and neuroprotection in Alzheimer's disease: metabolic mechanisms, cellular signaling, and brain-peripheral crosstalk.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- The impacts of different dietary restriction regimens on aging and longevity: from yeast to humans.Journal of biomedical science · 2025Review
- Monitoring the Biological Impact and Therapeutic Potential of Intermittent Fasting in Oncology: Assessing Strategies and Clinical Translational Challenges.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Sexual dimorphism in response to intermittent fasting and its impact on the brain.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Transcriptomic Alterations of Canine Histiocytic Sarcoma Cells in Response to Different Stressors.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Associations Between Chrono-Nutrition Behaviours and Cognitive Function in Middle-Aged Adults: The NUTRICO Cross-Sectional Cohort Study.Nutrition bulletin · 2025Article
92 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Disruption of autophagy--a key homeostatic process in which cytosolic components are degraded and recycled through lysosomes--can cause neurodegeneration in tissue culture and in vivo. Upregulation of this pathway may be neuroprotective, and much effort is being invested in developing drugs that cross the blood brain barrier and increase neuronal autophagy. One well-recognized way of inducing autophagy is by food restriction, which upregulates autophagy in many organs including the liver; but current dogma holds that the brain escapes this effect, perhaps because it is a metabolically privileged site. Here, we have re-evaluated this tenet using a novel approach that allows us to detect, enumerate and characterize autophagosomes in vivo. We first validate the approach by showing that it allows the identification and characterization of autophagosomes in the livers of food-restricted mice. We use the method to identify constitutive autophagosomes in cortical neurons and Purkinje cells, and we show that short-term fasting leads to a dramatic upregulation in neuronal autophagy. The increased neuronal autophagy is revealed by changes in autophagosome abundance and characteristics, and by diminished neuronal mTOR activity in vivo, demonstrated by a reduction in levels of phosphorylated S6 ribosomal protein in Purkinje cells. The increased abundance of autophagosomes in Purkinje cells was confirmed using transmission electron microscopy. Our data lead us to speculate that sporadic fasting might represent a simple, safe and inexpensive means to promote this potentially therapeutic neuronal response.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.