Interactive regulation of Beclin 1 and mTOR in autophagy in myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury

Autophagy is an evolutionarily conserved process responsible for the degradation of damaged and dysfunctional cellular organelles and protein aggregates. Recent evidence indicates that autophagy could be induced in ischemia/reperfusion injury. There is increasing evidence that autophagy plays a “double-edge sword” role in myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury. Moderate autophagy could promote cell survival, but improperly activated autophagy may accelerate cell death. Beclin 1 and mTOR mediated signaling pathways are two classical signaling pathways that activate autophagy and may also be involved in the important regulation mechanism of autophagy in promoting cell survival. This paper mainly reviewed the interactive regulation of Beclin 1 and mTOR signaling pathways in autophagy.