AR7 (80306-38-3) is an atypical retinoid which acts as an RARα antagonist and activates chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) via an RAR-dependent pathway.1 Downstream signaling results in an increase of LAMP-2A expression.1 Cells pretreated with AR7 had markedly improved viability in a paraquat-induced oxidative stress model.1 AR7 stimulated CMA and attenuated accumulation of SNCA oligomers in prolonged cultures of mutant cortical neurons2 indicating that CMA activation may be a viable disease modifying strategy in Parkinson’s disease3. A targetome analysis of AR7-induced CMA in cancer cells has been performed.4
