The Complex Role of Chaperone-Mediated Autophagy in Cancer Diseases

Chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) is a process that rapidly degrades proteins labeled with KFERQ-like motifs within cells via lysosomes to terminate their cellular functioning. Meanwhile, CMA plays an essential role in various biological processes correlated with cell proliferation and apoptosis. Previous studies have shown that CMA was initially found to be procancer in cancer cells, while some theories suggest that it may have an inhibitory effect on the progression of cancer in untransformed cells. Therefore, the complex relationship between CMA and cancer has aroused great interest in the application of CMA activity regulation in cancer therapy. Here, we describe the basic information related to CMA and introduce the physiological functions of CMA, the dual role of CMA in different cancer contexts, and its related research progress. Further study on the mechanism of CMA in tumor development may provide novel insights for tumor therapy targeting CMA. This review aims to summarize and discuss the complex mechanisms of CMA in cancer and related potential strategies for cancer therapy.