FIGURE 1.

(A) Autophagy levels have to be tightly regulated, and both too high or too low levels can be detrimental for the cell and the organism. (B) Autophagy demand changes during aging. During development and early life, when less dysfunctional proteins and organelles occur in the cell, low levels of autophagy are beneficial. An intervention increases the autophagy, such as mTOR inhibition, can be detrimental. In late life, high autophagy levels are beneficial, and an intervention that in early life would be deleterious can become beneficial.