DES and cardiomyopathy: In the example, desmin-related cardiomyopathy is determined by the accumulation of desmin-misfolded aggregates and is characterized by higher expression of SQSTM1 at mRNA and protein levels and SQSTM1 silencing impaired autophagosomal formation, exacerbated cell injury, thus increasing cardiomyocyte death (Zheng et al., 2011).