Eltrombopag inhibits autophagy

Journal Club: In a paper just out in PNAS, Y. Lin and coworkers showed that Eltrombopag, an FDA-approved drug for thrombocytopenia, inhibits autophagy by targeting the transcription factor EB (TFEB) a central transcriptional regulator of autophagy which promotes lysosomal biogenesis. This work shows that TFEB is targetable and may pave the way for rapid clinical advances for cancer therapies utilizing an autophagy inhibition strategy.