Research Progress on Mechanism of Autophagy in the Pathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a refractory autoimmune disease with chronic and systemic characteristics, however, the pathogenesis of this disease has not been fully defined. Autophagy is a metabolic process that exists in eukaryotic cells and maintains normal physiological activities and cell homeostasis. Dysregulation of autophagy is related to the occurrence and development of various diseases such as RA. The databases of CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP, PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier, etc. were searched for the literature related to autophagy in RA pathogenesis. The role of autophagy in the pathogenesis of RA was summarized in terms of maintaining synovial inflammation (improving anti-apoptosis rate of synovial cells and regulating the phenotype transformation of synovial cells), promoting bone destruction (participating in osteoclastogenesis and regulating chondrocyte apoptosis) and disrupting immune system homeostasis (regulating the activation and maturation of immune cells, participating in the presentation of citrullinated proteins, and inducing carbamoylation of proteins), in order to provide basis and reference for the pathogenesis research and treatment of RA.