Autophagy is a lysosomal degradation pathway which plays a fundamental role in diverse physiological processes, such as homeostasis, development, metabolism, and immunity. Accumulated evidence has demonstrated definitive etiological links between mutations in evolutionarily conserved autophagy-related (ATG) genes and a wide variety of human diseases, especially ageing, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders and inflammatory disorders. Autophagy or certain ATG genes may benefit organismal health span and lifespan through multiple layers of mechanisms, including selective autophagic degradation of intracellular pathogenic proteins and dysfunctional organelles, regulation of other membrane-trafficking pathways, coordination of anti-microbial immunity and inflammatory signaling, and maintenance of tissue and whole-body homeostasis. Specific modulation of autophagy or cassettes of ATG genes may provide valuable new therapeutic targets and strategies to treat human diseases. Therefore, a better understanding of the interaction between autophagy and pathophysiology of human disease and ageing will substantially seed future advances in biological and medical sciences.

To this end, this Research Topic focuses primarily on the novel advances regarding autophagy and ATG genes in pathophysiology of human disease and ageing. We aim to assemble a collection of cutting-edge communications which will broaden perspectives of our understandings of autophagy and ATG genes in diverse human diseases, and lead to paradigm-shifting new concepts and approaches for treating these diseases. We welcome the submission of Original Research articles, Methods, Reviews and Mini-Review articles. Areas to be covered may include, but are not limited to the following topics:

• New animal models for the study of autophagy or ATG genes in human disease and ageing
• Molecular mechanisms and regulation of autophagy or ATG genes in diverse human diseases
• Strategies and approaches for therapeutically targeting these mechanisms to improve clinal outcomes
• Development of autophagy modulators as novel therapeutic agents
• Autophagy-virus interaction and roles of ATG genes in microbial pathophysiology, with particular interests in emerging viral pathogens such as coronaviruses

This collection derived from research presented at the Keystone Symposia 'Autophagy: Mechanisms and Disease', held on October 5-8, 2020.

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