Host-pathogen interaction of human coronaviruses - autophagy (Homo sapiens)

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This pathway describes the induction and modulation of the human autophagy system during human coronavirus infection. The information is based on the review of Fung and Liu [10.1146/annurev-micro-020518-115759]. Autophagy is usually a stress mediated defense mechanism and can protect against pathogen infection. On the other hand it is known from several viruses that they can hijack the cellular autophagy system for proliferation [10.1074/jbc.M306124200]. For human coronaviruses it is presumed that coronaviruses stimulate the initiation of autophagy due to infection initiated stress for which PIK3R4 (VPS15), PIK3C3 (VPS34) and BECN1 (beclin1) are key proteins. Additionally, nsp6 (and nsp567 from other virus species than SARS-CoV) inhibit maturation of autolysosomes. Nsp6 is involved in the formation of double membrane vesicles and therefore has side effects on the formation of normal cellular vesicles [10.4161/auto.29309].