Lysosomes: multifunctional compartments ruled by a complex regulatory network

Abstract

More than 50 years have passed since Nobel laureate Cristian de Duve described for the first time the presence of tiny subcellular compartments filled with hydrolytic enzymes: the lysosome. For a long time, lysosomes were deemed simple waste bags exerting a plethora of hydrolytic activities involved in the recycling of biopolymers, and lysosomal genes were considered to just be simple housekeeping genes, transcribed in a constitutive fashion. However, lysosomes are emerging as multifunctional signalling hubs involved in multiple aspects of cell biology, both under homeostatic and pathological conditions. Lysosomes are involved in the regulation of cell metabolism through the mTOR/TFEB axis. They are also key players in the regulation and onset of the immune response. Furthermore, it is becoming clear that lysosomal hydrolases can regulate several biological processes outside of the lysosome. They are also implicated in a complex communication network among subcellular compartments that involves intimate organelle-to-organelle contacts. Furthermore, lysosomal dysfunction is nowadays accepted as the causative event behind several human pathologies: low frequency inherited diseases, cancer, or neurodegenerative, metabolic, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases. Recent advances in our knowledge of the complex biology of lysosomes have established them as promising therapeutic targets for the treatment of different pathologies. Although recent discoveries have started to highlight that lysosomes are controlled by a complex web of regulatory networks, which in some cases seem to be cell- and stimuli-dependent, to harness the full potential of lysosomes as therapeutic targets, we need a deeper understanding of the little-known signalling pathways regulating this subcellular compartment and its functions.