Identification of the mammalian VPS4A as a selective lipophagy receptor

Lipophagy is a selective type of autophagy where lipid droplets are targeted to the lysosome/vacuole for degradation. Even though lipophagy has been reported in various species, many questions remain unaddressed. How are the lipid droplets sequestered to the lysosome? What is the lipophagy receptor(s)? How is this receptor(s) regulated at a posttranslational level? A new collaborative study among several universities conducted on mouse and human hepatocytes sheds light on these questions, deciphering the lipophagy mechanism in the liver. In a recent paper, Das and colleagues identified VPS4A (vacuolar protein sorting 4 homolog A) as a selective receptor, providing new insights into the mechanistic pathway of lipophagy in mammals and its inverse association with steatotic liver diseases.