Mitophagy, a Form of Selective Autophagy, Plays an Essential Role in Mitochondrial Dynamics of Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a severe neurodegenerative disorder caused by the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra and affects millions of people. Currently, mitochondrial dysfunction is considered as a central role in the pathogenesis of both sporadic and familial forms of PD. Mitophagy, a process that selectively targets damaged or redundant mitochondria to the lysosome for elimination via the autophagy devices, is crucial in preserving mitochondrial health. So far, aberrant mitophagy has been observed in the postmortem of PD patients and genetic or toxin-induced models of PD. Except for mitochondrial dysfunction, mitophagy is involved in regulating several other PD-related pathological mechanisms as well, e.g., oxidative stress and calcium imbalance. So far, the mitophagy mechanisms induced by PD-related proteins, PINK1 and Parkin , have been studied widely, and several other PD-associated genes, e.g., DJ-1, LRRK2 , and alpha-synuclein , have been discovered to participate in the regulation of mitophagy as well, which further strengthens the link between mitophagy and PD. Thus, in this view, we reviewed mitophagy pathways in belief and discussed the interactions between mitophagy and several PD’s pathological mechanisms and how PD-related genes modulate the mitophagy process.