Displaying all 19 publications

Abstract:
Sort:
  1. Park SC, Lee MS, Shinfuku N, Sartorius N, Park YC
    Aust N Z J Psychiatry, 2015 Sep;49(9):833-41.
    PMID: 25829482 DOI: 10.1177/0004867415579464
    The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there were gender-specific depressive symptom profiles or gender-specific patterns of psychotropic agent usage in Asian patients with depression.
  2. Park YC, Yang SY, Chong MY, Kanba S, Sartorius N, Shinfuku N, et al.
    Psychiatry Investig, 2018 Oct;15(10):1007-1008.
    PMID: 30373360 DOI: 10.30773/pi.2018.09.06
    The REAP-AP study recruited 3,746 patients with schizophrenia, in March and April 2016, from 71 centers in 15 Asian countries/territories namely Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Our findings reveal a trend according to which high dose antipsychotic prescription is more prevalent in Eastern Asia (especially, Japan and Korea) than in other regions of Asia. This historical factor may be associated with our finding of an Eastern Asian preponderance of high dose antipsychotic prescription.
  3. Park SC, Lee MS, Hahn SW, Si TM, Kanba S, Chong MY, et al.
    Acta Neuropsychiatr, 2016 Dec;28(6):337-345.
    PMID: 27305958
    Using data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD) study, we aimed to present the rates and clinical correlates of suicidal thoughts/acts in patients recruited from a total of 40 centres in 10 Asian countries/areas: China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand.
  4. Quah Y, Park NH, Lee EB, Lee KJ, Yi-Le JC, Ali MS, et al.
    BMC Complement Med Ther, 2022 Jan 04;22(1):5.
    PMID: 34983484 DOI: 10.1186/s12906-021-03486-w
    BACKGROUND: Trifolium pratense (red clover) ethanolic extract (TPEE) has been used as a popular over-the-counter remedy for the management of menopausal symptoms. Prolonged consumption of herbal extract has been shown to regulate the composition of gut microbiota. This study was designed to elucidate the influence of TPEE on the gut microbiota composition in the ovariectomized (OVX) rats.

    METHODS: OVX rats were treated with TPEE at 125, 250, 500 mg/kg/day, or controls (pomegranate extract, 500 mg/kg/day; estradiol, 25 μg/kg/day) for 12 weeks. Gut microbiota analysis was conducted by extracting the microbial DNA from fecal samples and microbiome taxonomic profiling was carried out by using next-generation sequencing. The levels of serum biomarkers were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. The prediction of functional biomarker of microbiota was performed using PICRUSt to investigate the potential pathways associated with gut health and serum lipid profile regulation. To study the correlation between gut microbiota composition and serum lipid levels, Spearman's correlation coefficients were defined and analyzed. Additionally, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis was conducted to uncover additional physiologically active ingredients.

    RESULTS: TPEE-treated OVX rats showed significant reduction in serum triglycerides (TG), total cholesterols (TCHOL), and LDL/VLDL levels but increase in HDL level. The alteration in the pathways involve in metabolism was the most common among the other KEGG categories. Particularly, TPEE also significantly reduced the relative abundance of sequences read associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signalling pathway. TPEE intervention was seen to reduce the Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio in the OVX rats, denoting a reduction in microbial dysbiosis in the OVX rats. Correlation analysis at the phylum level revealed that Bacteriodetes and Proteobacteria were strongly correlated with serum TG, TCHOL and HDL levels. At the species level, Bifidobacterium pseudolongum group was seen to positively correlate with serum HDL level and negatively correlated with serum AST, ALT, LDL/VLDL, TCHOL, and TG levels.

    CONCLUSIONS: TPEE treatment showed therapeutic benefits by improving the intestinal microbiota composition which strongly correlated with the serum lipid and cholesterol levels in the OVX rats.

  5. Ngeow YF, Suwanjutha S, Chantarojanasriri T, Wang F, Saniel M, Alejandria M, et al.
    Int J Infect Dis, 2005 May;9(3):144-53.
    PMID: 15840455
    In many parts of Asia, the inaccessibility and high cost of diagnostic tests have hampered the study of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) caused by atypical respiratory pathogens.
  6. Park SC, Oh HS, Tripathi A, Abraham Kallivayalil R, Avasthi A, Grover S, et al.
    Nord J Psychiatry, 2019 Jun 26.
    PMID: 31240984 DOI: 10.1080/08039488.2019.1632381
    Background: Although cannabis use has been linked with schizophrenia in a dose-response pattern, to our knowledge, the relationship between cannabis and schizophrenia has rarely been reported in Asian population. Aim: We compared the clinical characteristics and psychotropic prescription patterns between cannabis users and non-users among Asian patients with schizophrenia. Moreover, we aimed to identify the independent correlates of cannabis use in these subjects. Methods: We performed the analysis of the data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antipsychotics (REAP-AP), a collaborative consortium survey used to collate the prescription patterns for antipsychotic and other psychotropic medications in patients with schizophrenia in Asia. We included 132 schizophrenia patients in the group of lifetime cannabis use and 1756 in the group that had never used cannabis. A binary logistic model was fitted to detect the clinical correlates of lifetime cannabis use. Results: Adjusting for the effects of age, sex, geographical region, income group, duration of untreated psychosis, and Charlson comordity index level, a binary logistic regression model revealed that lifetime cannabis use was independently associated with aggressive behavior [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.582, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.006-2.490, p = .047] and with long-acting injectable antipsychotic treatment (aOR = 1.796, 95% CI = 1.444-2.820, p = .001). Conclusion: Our findings indicate a close link between lifetime cannabis use and aggressive behavior. The use of long-acting, injectable antipsychotics preferentially treats the aggressive behavior cannabis users among patients with schizophrenia in Asia, especially, the South or Southeast Asia.
  7. Park SC, Kim GM, Kato TA, Chong MY, Lin SK, Yang SY, et al.
    Nord J Psychiatry, 2021 Jan;75(1):9-17.
    PMID: 32580668 DOI: 10.1080/08039488.2020.1777462
    BACKGROUND: Network analysis provides a new viewpoint that explicates intertwined and interrelated symptoms into dynamic causal architectures of symptom clusters. This is a process called 'symptomics' and is concurrently applied to various areas of symptomatology.

    AIMS: Using the data from Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antipsychotics (REAP-AP), we aimed to estimate a network model of extrapyramidal syndrome in patients with schizophrenia.

    METHODS: Using data from REAP-AP, extrapyramidal symptoms of 1046 Asian patients with schizophrenia were evaluated using the nine items of the Drug-Induced Extrapyramidal Symptoms Scale (DIEPSS). The estimated network of the ordered-categorical DIEPSS items consisted of nodes (symptoms) and edges (interconnections). A community detection algorithm was also used to identify distinctive symptom clusters, and correlation stability coefficients were used to evaluate the centrality stability.

    RESULTS: An interpretable level of node strength centrality was ensured with a correlation coefficient. An estimated network of extrapyramidal syndrome showed that 26 (72.2%) of all possible 35 edges were estimated to be greater than zero. Dyskinesia was most centrally situated within the estimated network. In addition, earlier antipsychotic-induced extrapyramidal symptoms were divided into three distinctive clusters - extrapyramidal syndrome without parkinsonism, postural instability and gait difficulty-dominant parkinsonism, and tremor-dominant parkinsonism.

    CONCLUSIONS: Our findings showed that dyskinesia is the most central domain in an estimated network structure of extrapyramidal syndrome in Asian patients with schizophrenia. These findings are consistent with the speculation that acute dystonia, akathisia, and parkinsonism could be the risk factors of tardive dyskinesia.

  8. Park SC, Jang EY, Xiang YT, Kanba S, Kato TA, Chong MY, et al.
    Psychiatry Clin Neurosci, 2020 Jun;74(6):344-353.
    PMID: 32048773 DOI: 10.1111/pcn.12989
    AIM: We aimed to estimate the network structures of depressive symptoms using network analysis and evaluated the geographic regional differences in theses network structures among Asian patients with depressive disorders.

    METHODS: Using data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns for Antidepressants (REAP-AD), the network of the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for depressive episode was estimated from 1174 Asian patients with depressive disorders. The node strength centrality of all ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for a depressive episode was estimated using a community-detection algorithm. In addition, networks of depressive symptoms were estimated separately among East Asian patients and South or Southeast Asian patients. Moreover, networks were estimated separately among Asian patients from high-income countries and those from middle-income countries.

    RESULTS: Persistent sadness, fatigue, and loss of interest were the most centrally situated within the network of depressive symptoms in Asian patients with depressive disorders overall. A community-detection algorithm estimated that when excluding psychomotor disturbance as an outlier, the other nine symptoms formed the largest clinically meaningful cluster. Geographic and economic variations in networks of depressive symptoms were evaluated.

    CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated that the typical symptoms of the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for depressive episode are the most centrally situated within the network of depressive symptoms. Furthermore, our findings suggested that cultural influences related to geographic and economic distributions of participants could influence the estimated depressive symptom network in Asian patients with depressive disorders.

  9. Chon Park Y, Kanba S, Chong MY, Tripathi A, Kallivayalil RA, Avasthi A, et al.
    Kaohsiung J. Med. Sci., 2018 Feb;34(2):113-119.
    PMID: 29413227 DOI: 10.1016/j.kjms.2017.09.009
    Our study aimed to assess the psychometric validity of the conceptual disorganization item and other items of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) for detecting disorganized speech in patients with schizophrenia. We included 357 schizophrenia patients with disorganized speech and 1082 without disorganized speech from the survey centers in India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan, using the data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Patterns for Antipsychotics (REAP-AP) study. After adjusting the effects of confounding variables, a binary logistic regression model was fitted to identify BPRS items independently associated with disorganized speech. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to identify optimum cut-off scores and their sensitivities and specificities for detecting disorganized speech. After adjusting the effects of confounding variables, the fitted binary logistic regression model indicated that conceptual disorganization (P 
  10. Lin SK, Yang SY, Park SC, Jang OJ, Zhu X, Xiang YT, et al.
    Clin Psychopharmacol Neurosci, 2022 Feb 28;20(1):61-69.
    PMID: 35078949 DOI: 10.9758/cpn.2022.20.1.61
    Objective: Pharmacotherapy including mood stabilizers and antipsychotics are frequently used in bipolar disorder (BD); however, the lack of consensus regarding the definition of polypharmacy hinders conducting comparative studies across different settings and countries. Research on Asian Prescription Pattern (REAP) is the largest and the longest lasting international collaborative research in psychiatry in Asia. The objective of REAP BD was to investigate the prescription patterns of psychotropic medications across Asian countries. The rates of polypharmacy and psychotropic drug load were also analyzed.

    Methods: The data collection was web-based. Prescription patterns were categorized as (1) mood stabilizer monotherapy: one mood stabilizer; (2) antipsychotic monotherapy: one antipsychotic; (3) simple polypharmacy: one mood stabilizer and one antipsychotic; and (4) complex polypharmacy: ≥ 2 mood stabilizers or/and antipsychotics. The psychotropic drug load in each patient was calculated using the defined daily dose method.

    Results: Among 2003 patients with BD (52.1% female, 42.4 years) from 12 countries, 1,619 (80.8%) patients received mood stabilizers, 1,644 (82.14%) received antipsychotics, and 424 (21.2%) received antidepressants, with 14.7% mood stabilizer monotherapy, 13.4% antipsychotic monotherapy, 48.9% simple polypharmacy, 20.3% complex polypharmacy, and 2.6% other therapy. The average psychotropic drug load was 2.05 ± 1.40. Results varied widely between countries.

    Conclusion: Over 70% of psychotropic regimens involved polypharmacy, which accords with the high prevalence of polypharmacy in BD under a permissive criterion (2 or more core psychotropic drugs) worldwide. Notably, ≥ 80% of our sample received antipsychotics, which may indicate an increasing trend in antipsychotic use for BD treatment.

  11. Kubota C, Inada T, Lin SK, Avasthi A, Chee KY, Tanra AJ, et al.
    Hum Psychopharmacol, 2023 Mar;38(2):e2861.
    PMID: 36462184 DOI: 10.1002/hup.2861
    INTRODUCTION: Drug-induced extrapyramidal syndrome (EPS) remains a major problem in clinical psychiatry. This study aimed to examine the factor structure of drug-induced extrapyramidal symptoms observed in patients with schizophrenia and assessed using the Drug-Induced Extrapyramidal Symptoms Scale (DIEPSS).

    METHODS: The participants were 1478 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia whose EPS was assessed using the DIEPSS in India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan in the 2016 REAP AP-4 study. The records of the participants were randomly divided into two subgroups: the first for exploratory factor analysis of the eight DIEPSS items, and the second for confirmatory factor analysis.

    RESULTS: The factor analysis identified three factors: F1 (gait and bradykinesia), F2 (muscle rigidity and tremor), and F3 (sialorrhea, akathisia, dystonia, and dyskinesia).

    CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the eight individual items of the DIEPSS could be composed of three different mechanisms: acute parkinsonism observed during action (F1), acute parkinsonism observed at rest (F2), and central dopaminergic mechanisms with pathophysiology other than acute parkinsonism (F3).

  12. Park YC, Lee MS, Si TM, Chiu HFK, Kanba S, Chong MY, et al.
    Saudi Pharm J, 2019 Feb;27(2):246-253.
    PMID: 30766437 DOI: 10.1016/j.jsps.2018.11.006
    BACKGROUND: Although disorganized speech is seen as one of the nuclear features of schizophrenia, there have been few reports of disorganized speech-associated psychotropic drug-prescribing patterns in large samples of schizophrenia patients.

    OBJECTIVE: We aimed to examine the prevalence of disorganized speech and its correlates in terms of psychotropic drug prescribing, using the data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Patterns for Antipsychotics (REAP-AP) study.

    METHOD: A total of 3744 patients with the ICD-10 diagnosis of schizophrenia were enrolled from 71 survey centers in 15 Asian countries/areas. An essential criterion of disorganized speech was that it was "severe enough to impair substantially effective communication" as defined in the DSM-5. A binary logistic model was fitted to identify the psychotropic drug-prescribing correlates of disorganized speech.

    RESULTS: After adjusting for the potential effects of confounding variables, the binary logistic regression model showed that the presence of disorganized speech was directly associated with adjunctive use of mood stabilizers (P 

  13. Chen CK, Yang SY, Park SC, Jang OJ, Zhu X, Xiang YT, et al.
    Asian J Psychiatr, 2023 Jul;85:103613.
    PMID: 37163943 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2023.103613
    OBJECTIVE: Mood stabilizers are psychotropic drugs mainly used to treat bipolar disorder in the acute phase or for maintenance therapy to prevent relapse. In clinical practice, mood stabilizers are commonly prescribed for conditions other than bipolar disorder. This study investigated the distribution of mood stabilizer prescriptions for different psychiatric diagnoses and studied differences in the drugs, dosage, and plasma concentration in 10 Asian countries including Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, China, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Myanmar.

    METHODS: Patients prescribed mood stabilizers (lithium, carbamazepine, valproic acid, or lamotrigine) for a psychiatric condition other than bipolar disorder (codes F31.0-F31.9 in the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, Clinical Modification) were recruited through convenience sampling. A website-based data entry system was used for data collection.

    RESULTS: In total, 1557 psychiatric patients were enrolled. Schizophrenia, schizotypal, delusional, and other non-mood psychotic disorders (F20-F29, 55.8 %) was the most common diagnosis, followed by non-bipolar mood disorders (F30, F31- F39, 25.3 %), organic mental disorder (F00-F09, 8.8 %), mental retardation (F70-F79, 5.8 %) and anxiety, dissociative, stress-related, somatoform and other nonpsychotic mental disorders (F40-F48, 4.4 %). The most frequently targeted symptoms (>20 %) were irritability (48 %), impulsivity (32.4 %), aggression (29.2 %), anger (20.8 %), and psychosis (24.1 %). Valproic acid was the most frequently used medication.

    CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians typically prescribe mood stabilizers as empirically supported treatment to manage mood symptoms in patients with diagnoses other than bipolar disorders, though there is on official indication for these disorders. The costs and benefits of this add-on symptomatic treatment warrant further investigation.

  14. Shuy YK, Santharan S, Chew QH, Lin SK, Ouyang WC, Chen CK, et al.
    J Clin Psychopharmacol, 2024 01 16;44(2):117-123.
    PMID: 38230861 DOI: 10.1097/JCP.0000000000001813
    BACKGROUND: As clinical practices with lithium salts for patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD) are poorly documented in Asia, we studied the prevalence and clinical correlates of lithium use there to support international comparisons.

    METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study of use and dosing of lithium salts for BD patients across 13 Asian sites and evaluated bivariate relationships of lithium treatment with clinical correlates followed by multivariate logistic regression modeling.

    RESULTS: In a total of 2139 BD participants (52.3% women) of mean age 42.4 years, lithium salts were prescribed in 27.3% of cases overall, varying among regions from 3.20% to 59.5%. Associated with lithium treatment were male sex, presence of euthymia or mild depression, and a history of seasonal mood change. Other mood stabilizers usually were given with lithium, often at relatively high doses. Lithium use was associated with newly emerging and dose-dependent risk of tremors as well as risk of hypothyroidism. We found no significant differences in rates of clinical remission or of suicidal behavior if treatment included lithium or not.

    CONCLUSIONS: Study findings clarify current prevalence, dosing, and clinical correlates of lithium treatment for BD in Asia. This information should support clinical decision-making regarding treatment of BD patients and international comparisons of therapeutic practices.

  15. Tang CT, Chua EC, Chew QH, He YL, Si TM, Chiu HF, et al.
    Asia Pac Psychiatry, 2020 Dec;12(4):e12393.
    PMID: 32468725 DOI: 10.1111/appy.12393
    INTRODUCTION: Patterns of clinical use of long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotic drugs in many countries, especially in Asia, for treatment of patients diagnosed with chronic psychotic disorders including schizophrenia are not well established.

    METHODS: Within an extensive research consortium, we evaluated prescription rates for first- (FGA) and second-generation antipsychotic (SGA) LAI drugs and their clinical correlates among 3557 subjects diagnosed with schizophrenia across 15 Asian countries and region.

    RESULTS: Overall, an average of 17.9% (638/3557; range: 0.0%-44.9%) of treated subjects were prescribed LAI antipsychotics. Those given LAI vs orally administered agents were significantly older, had multiple hospitalizations, received multiple antipsychotics more often, at 32.4% higher doses, were more likely to manifest disorganized behavior or aggression, had somewhat superior psychosocial functioning and less negative symptoms, but were more likely to be hospitalized, with higher BMI, and more tremor. Being prescribed an FGA vs SGA LAI agent was associated with male sex, aggression, disorganization, hospitalization, multiple antipsychotics, higher doses, with similar risks of adverse neurological or metabolic effects. Rates of use of LAI antipsychotic drugs to treat patients diagnosed with schizophrenia varied by more than 40-fold among Asian countries and given to an average of 17.9% of treated schizophrenia patients. We identified the differences in the clinical profiles and treatment characteristics of patients who were receiving FGA-LAI and SGA-LAI medications.

    DISCUSSION: These findings behoove clinicians to be mindful when evaluating patients' need to be on LAI antipsychotics amidst multifaceted considerations, especially downstream adverse events such as metabolic and extrapyramidal side effects.

  16. Lim WK, Chew QH, He YL, Si TM, Chiu FH, Xiang YT, et al.
    Hum Psychopharmacol, 2020 11;35(6):1-7.
    PMID: 32738085 DOI: 10.1002/hup.2752
    OBJECTIVE: Studies examining coprescription and dosages of mood stabilizers (MSs) with antipsychotics for psychotic disorders are infrequent. Based on sparse extant data and clinical experience, we hypothesized that adjunctive MS use would be associated with certain demographic (e.g., younger age), clinical factors (e.g., longer illness duration), and characteristics of antipsychotic treatment (e.g., multiple or high antipsychotic doses).

    METHODS: Within an Asian research consortium focusing on pharmaco-epidemiological factors in schizophrenia, we evaluated rates of MS coprescription, including high doses (>1000 mg/day lithium-equivalents) and clinical correlates.

    RESULTS: Among 3557 subjects diagnosed with schizophrenia in 14 Asian countries, MSs were coprescribed with antipsychotics in 13.6% (n = 485) of the sample, with 10.9% (n = 53) on a high dose. Adjunctive MS treatment was associated (all p < 0.005) with demographic (female sex and younger age), setting (country and hospitalization), illness (longer duration, more hospitalizations, non-remission of illness, behavioral disorganization, aggression, affective symptoms, and social-occupational dysfunction), and treatment-related factors (higher antipsychotic dose, multiple antipsychotics, higher body mass index, and greater sedation). Patients given high doses of MSs had a less favorable illness course, more behavioral disorganization, poorer functioning, and higher antipsychotic doses.

    CONCLUSIONS: Schizophrenia patients receiving adjunctive MS treatment in Asian psychiatric centers are more severely ill and less responsive to simpler treatment regimens.

  17. Loo LWJ, Chew QH, Lin SK, Yang SY, Ouyang WC, Chen CK, et al.
    PMID: 37068038 DOI: 10.1097/JCP.0000000000001693
    BACKGROUND: Pharmacoepidemiological studies of clozapine use to treat bipolar disorder (BD), especially in Asia, are rare, although they can provide insights into associated clinical characteristics and support international comparisons of indications and drug dosing.

    METHODS: We examined the prevalence and clinical correlates of clozapine treatment for BD in 13 Asian countries and regions (China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand) within an Asian Prescription Patterns Research Consortium. We compared BD patients treated with clozapine or not in initial bivariate comparisons followed by multivariable logistic regression modeling.

    RESULTS: Clozapine was given to 2.13% of BD patients overall, at a mean daily dose of 275 (confidence interval, 267-282) chlorpromazine-equivalent mg/day. Patients receiving clozapine were older, more likely males, hospitalized, currently manic, and given greater numbers of mood-stabilizing and antipsychotic drugs in addition to clozapine. Logistic regression revealed that older age, male sex, current mania, and greater number of other antipsychotics remained significantly associated with clozapine treatment. Clozapine use was not associated with depressed mood, remission of illness, suicidal risk, or electroconvulsive treatment within the previous 12 months.

    CONCLUSIONS: The identified associations of clozapine use with particular clinical features call for vigilance in personalized clinical monitoring so as to optimize clinical outcomes of BD patients and to limit risks of adverse effects of polytherapy.

  18. Klionsky DJ, Abdel-Aziz AK, Abdelfatah S, Abdellatif M, Abdoli A, Abel S, et al.
    Autophagy, 2021 Jan;17(1):1-382.
    PMID: 33634751 DOI: 10.1080/15548627.2020.1797280
    In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field.
Related Terms
Filters
Contact Us

Please provide feedback to Administrator (afdal@afpm.org.my)

External Links