ArticleCell death & disease2017
Is trehalose an autophagic inducer? Unraveling the roles of non-reducing disaccharides on autophagic flux and alpha-synuclein aggregation.
Article in Cell death & disease, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)Autophagy · 2021Guideline
- Aminochrome-Induced Disruption of Autophagosome-Lysosome Fusion: Implications for Protein Aggregation in Parkinson's Disease.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Chemical and Molecular Strategies in Restoring Autophagic Flux in TDP-43 Proteinopathy.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Research progress on the α-synuclein-lysosome axis in Parkinson's disease: molecular mechanisms of protein aggregation, autophagy dysfunction, and therapeutic targeting.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- The role of thrombospondin-1 in trehalose-induced autophagy and ocular hypertension in mice.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Assessment of the Curative Anti-Glycation Properties of a Novel Injectable Formulation Combining Dual-Weight Hyaluronic Acid (Low- and Mid/High-Molecular Weight) with Trehalose on Human Skin Ex Vivo.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- The Role of Autophagy in Excitotoxicity, Synaptic Mitochondrial Stress and Neurodegeneration.Autophagy reports · 2025Article
- Review
- Inhibition of heme-thiolate monooxygenase CYP1B1 prevents hepatic stellate cell activation and liver fibrosis by accumulating trehalose.Science translational medicine · 2024Article
- To eat or not to eat: a critical review on the role of autophagy in prostate carcinogenesis and prostate cancer therapeutics.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Review
- How close is autophagy-targeting therapy for Alzheimer's disease to clinical use? A summary of autophagy modulators in clinical studies.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- Profiling neuroprotective potential of trehalose in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases: a systematic review.Neural regeneration research · 2023Review
- PEG 400:Trehalose Coating Enhances Curcumin-Loaded PLGA Nanoparticle Internalization in Neuronal Cells.Pharmaceutics · 2023Article
- Trehalose attenuates abdominal aortic aneurysm formation by inducing autophagy in smooth muscle cells.Journal of geriatric cardiology : JGC · 2023Article
- Natural Activators of Autophagy Reduce Oxidative Stress and Muscle Injury Biomarkers in Endurance Athletes: A Pilot Study.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Autophagy in the normal and diseased cornea.Experimental eye research · 2022Review
- Trehalose ameliorates prodromal non-motor deficits and aberrant protein accumulation in a rotenone-induced mouse model of Parkinson's disease.Archives of pharmacal research · 2022Article
- Dendritic autophagy degrades postsynaptic proteins and is required for long-term synaptic depression in mice.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Modeling alpha-synuclein pathology in a human brain-chip to assess blood-brain barrier disruption.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Therapeutic potential of trehalose in neurodegenerative diseases: the knowns and unknowns.Neural regeneration research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Autophagy is a pivotal intracellular process by which cellular macromolecules are degraded upon various stimuli. A failure in the degradation of autophagic substrates such as impaired organelles and protein aggregates leads to their accumulations, which are characteristics of many neurodegenerative diseases. Pharmacological activation of autophagy has thus been considered a prospective therapeutic approach for treating neurodegenerative diseases. Among a number of autophagy-inducing agents, trehalose has received attention for its beneficial effects in different disease models of neurodegeneration. However, how trehalose promotes autophagy has not been fully revealed. We investigated the influence of trehalose and other disaccharides upon autophagic flux and aggregation of α-synuclein, a protein linked to Parkinson's disease. In differentiated human neuroblastoma and primary rat cortical neuron culture models, treatment with trehalose and other disaccharides resulted in accumulation of lipidated LC3 (LC3-II), p62, and autophagosomes, whereas it decreased autolysosomes. On the other hand, addition of Bafilomycin A1 to trehalose treatments had relatively marginal effect, an indicative of autophagic flux blockage. In concordance with these results, the cells treated with trehalose exhibited an incremental tendency in α-synuclein aggregation. Secretion of α-synuclein was also elevated in the culture medium upon trehalose treatment, thereby significantly increasing intercellular transmission of this protein. Despite the substantial increase in α-synuclein aggregation, which normally leads to cell death, cell viability was not affected upon treatment with trehalose, suggesting an autophagy-independent protective function of trehalose against protein aggregates. This study demonstrates that, although trehalose has been widely considered an autophagic inducer, it may be actually a potent blocker of the autophagic flux.
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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.