Non-canonical functions of autophagy proteins in cardiovascular diseases

Background and Aims: Canonical autophagy has emerged as an important paradigm with the potential to have a broad impact on development of cardiovascular diseases. However, a deeper understanding of the interplay between canonical and non-canonical autophagy pathways is still lacking. Our aim was to assess whether LC3-asssociated endocytosis (LANDO), a novel non-canonical autophagy pathway, in which LC3 (microtubule-associated protein light chain 3) is conjugated to early endosome membranes using a portion of the canonical autophagy machinery could be involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases.