The expression of CFTR has been shown to influence autophagy as discussed above. One mechanism of decreased CFTR expression is due to the genetic defects found in CF, where the most common mutation seen in these patients is ΔF508-CFTR [102,103,104]. Studies have demonstrated that ΔF508-CFTR causes protein misfolding that forms aggregates potentially impairing cellular proteostasis [20,42,53,61]. This dysfunction caused by ΔF508-CFTR includes autophagy dysfunction and decreases pathogen clearance in the airways of patients with CF [53]. Similar findings were observed in macrophages with dysfunctional CFTR [105,106].