Autophagy is the process by which endogenous proteins and damaged organelles are destroyed intracellularly. Autophagy is postulated to be essential for cell homeostasis and cell remodeling during differentiation, metamorphosis, non-apoptotic cell death, and aging. Reduced levels of autophagy have been described in some malignant tumors, and a role for autophagy in controlling the unregulated cell growth linked to cancer has been proposed. This gene encodes a member of the autophagin protein family. The encoded protein is also designated as a member of the C-54 family of cysteine proteases. Alternate transcriptional splice variants, encoding different isoforms, have been characterized. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]
Forensic Context
A study in mice demonstrated that chronic methamphetamine administration significantly dysregulated the ATG4B in microglia, as part of a broad disruption of autophagy pathways revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing [Oladapo et al. DOI:10.3390/Ijms26020649].