What's the significance of autophagy?

Autophagy is a crucial cellular process that plays a significant role in maintaining optimum cellular health. It is involved in:

• Cellular Cleaning: Autophagy helps eliminate dysfunctional and damaged organelles, misfolded proteins, and other cellular waste, maintaining cellular homeostasis and preventing the accumulation of toxic substances.
• Adaptation to Stress: Autophagy can be triggered in response to various stresses, enabling cells to survive and adapt to adverse conditions. It degrades cellular components and makes valuable biomolecules available to the cell in case of nutrient deprivation. In case of infection, autophagy eliminates the invading pathogen and infected cells, stemming the spread. 
• Aging and Longevity: Some research suggests that promoting autophagy may contribute to extending lifespan and delaying the aging process by enhancing cellular quality control.
• Disease Prevention: Autophagy dysfunction is linked to various diseases, including cancer, infections, and neurodegenerative disorders. Regulating autophagy can be essential for disease prevention and treatment.