Epigenetic regulation of autophagy: A key modification in cancer cells and cancer stem cells

Figure 1 Role of autophagy in cancer cells and cancer stem cells. Autophagy is a multifaceted pro-survival mechanism that supports the proliferation, growth, and stemness of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Autophagy facilitates CSCs plasticity by promoting immunosuppression, therapy resistance, metastasis, and invasion of CSCs. Several autophagy-related genes (ATGs) aid in the development, maturation and closure of the autophagosome (the ATG related signaling has been exhaustively discussed in our previous review; this figure has been adapted accordingly)[8,12]. CC: Cancer cell; ER: Endoplasmic reticulum; PE: Phosphatidylethanolamine; PI3P: Phosphatidyl-inositol-3-phosphate; TIL: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes; TME: Tumor microenvironment; WIPI: WD-repeat domain phosphoinositide-interacting protein.