Autophagy in the control of food intake

The cellular nutrient sensing apparatus detects nutritional depletion and transmits this information to downstream effectors that generate energy from alternate sources. Auto-phagy is a crucial catabolic pathway that turns over redundant cytoplasmic components in lysosomes to provide energy to the starved cell. Recent studies have described a role for hypothalamic autophagy in the control of food intake and energy balance. Activated autophagy in hypothalamic neurons during starvation mobilized neuron-intrinsic lipids to generate free fatty acids that increased AgRP levels. AgRP neuron-specific inhibition of autophagy decreased fasting-induced increases in AgRP levels and food intake. Deletion of auto-phagy in AgRP neurons led to constitutive increases in levels of proopiomelanocortin and its active processed product, a-melanocyte stimulating hormone that contributed t