Interaction between DNA damage response and autophagy in colorectal cancer

Abstract The subjection of DNA to numerous lethal damages is threatening for the stability and integrity of the whole body genome. DNA damage response (DDR) is a critical phosphorylation-based signaling pathway developed for the maintaining of the genome against these threatens. Recent studies showed that various targets of DDR are involved in the activation of autophagy, as one of the important effectors of this signaling. The interplay between DDR and autophagy may have a critical role in the pathogenesis of various malignancies such as colorectal cancer, which can be a basement for the designing novel therapeutic strategies for combating this cancer type. On the other hand, autophagy is also demonstrated to be contributed to the regulation of DDR components. Therefore, in this review article, we will discuss the crosstalk between DDR and autophagy and their exact function in the pathogenesis of various human cancer types, with special attention on colorectal cancer.