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
Anguiano et al. (2013), Chemical modulation of chaperone-mediated autophagy by retinoic acid derivatives; Nat. Chem. Biol. 9 374
Ho et al. (2020), Age-dependent accumulation of oligomeric SNCA/α-synuclein from impaired degradation in mutant LRRK2 knockin mouse model of Parkinson disease: role for therapeutic activation of chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA); Autophagy 16 347
Bonam et al. (2021), Autophagy-Lysosomal Pathway as Potential Therapeutic Target in Parkinson’s Disease; Cells 10 3547
Hao et al. (2019), Targetome analysis of chaperone-mediated autophagy in cancer cells; Autophagy 15 1558
