Autophagy, or is an intracellular degradation pathway for improperly functioning aggre-gation-prone proteins, damaged organelles, unwanted macromolecules, and invading patho-gens. The process is necessary for maintaining cell and tissue homeostasis, which contributes to the survival of the organism, and is actively studied. The purpose of this work was the search, selection and analysis of the literature on autophagy as one of the main mechanisms of maintaining cellular homeostasis under conditions of oxidative stress; cellular aging; calo-rie restriction; as well as about the targeted effect on autophagy in the conditions of various diseases. The following generalizations were made: 1) the ability to be directly activated in response to the intense formation of reactive oxygen species in cells allows us to consider autophagy as an important element of antioxidant protection, therefore, the study of ways and means of effective autophagy management is becoming relevant today; 2) dietary con-sumption of autophagy activators may promote health and extend lifespan through multiple mechanisms, including reduction of oxidative stress, induction of autophagy, and suppression of inflammation; 3) studies aimed at elucidating the role of sirtuins, which are key regulators of cellular metabolism and oxidative stress, are gaining relevance in the initiation of autoph-agy. Currently, sirtuin-dependent mechanisms of autophagy require research in experimental models using mammalian cells; 4) continuing the study of autophagy processes will allow a better understanding of physiological aspects and help ensure progress in the development of new strategies for the prevention and treatment of human diseases (including those related to age); 5) autophagy is crucial for cellular physiology, autophagy dysfunction is in-volved in the pathogenesis of various human diseases, and therefore the therapeutic use of autophagy has potential biomedical significance.
Keywords: cell death, cellular homeostasis, oxidative stress, cellular aging, calorie restriction, targeted effect on autophagy.