ReviewCell communication and signaling : CCS2025
Mitochondrial DNA signals driving immune responses: Why, How, Where?
Review in Cell communication and signaling : CCS, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mitophagy in pathogenesis and therapeutic implications for infection.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Mitochondrial Quality Control Links Exercise to Sterile Inflammation in the Cardiovascular System: A Narrative Review.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Role of Inflammation and Immunity in Cardiovascular Disease: Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets.MedComm · 2026Review
- Association of mitochondrial DNA haplogroup, oxidative DNA damage and inflammatory markers in middle-aged adults.International journal of radiation biology · 2026Article
- Observational
- Review
- An immune-associated mitochondrial DNA variant with sex differences reveals a putative novel microprotein called MASL.Immunity & ageing : I & A · 2026Article
- Cardiomyocyte-Specific Plakophilin-2 Loss Is Sufficient to Induce Aging and Senescence of Nonmyocytes: Relevance to Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026Article
- Viral Mimicry of Alzheimer's Disease: Innate Sensing of Self-Nucleic Acids as a Driver of Glial Senescence.Journal of molecular neuroscience : MN · 2026Review
- Neuron-derived mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) activates microglia via the Z-DNA binding protein 1 (ZBP1)-mediated pathway in mild traumatic brain injury.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Small but mighty: mitochondrial DNA at the centre of retrograde signalling.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Review
- Mitochondrial DNA as a driver of inflammation via the cGAS-STING pathway.Inflammation research : official journal of the European Histamine Research Society ... [et al.] · 2026Review
- Article
- The spleen-brain axis in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias: Integrating immune and metabolic regulation.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Host mitochondrial DNA in bacterial pathogenesis: Friend, Foe, or Both?Archives of microbiology · 2026Review
- Cell-Free DNA-Based Theranostics for Inflammatory Disorders.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Mitochondria in Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury: From Mechanisms to Therapeutics.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Mitochondria as Inducers of Neutrophil Extracellular Traps.Inflammation · 2026Review
- Mechanisms Underlying Altitude-Induced and Group 3 Pulmonary Hypertension.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Toll-like receptors in innate immunity and inflammation: from fundamental biology to clinic insights.Immunity & inflammation · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There has been a recent expansion in our understanding of DNA-sensing mechanisms. Mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative and proteostatic stresses, instability and impaired disposal of nucleoids cause the release of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the mitochondria in several human diseases, as well as in cell culture and animal models. Mitochondrial DNA mislocalized to the cytosol and/or the extracellular compartments can trigger innate immune and inflammation responses by binding DNA-sensing receptors (DSRs). Here, we define the features that make mtDNA highly immunogenic and the mechanisms of its release from the mitochondria into the cytosol and the extracellular compartments. We describe the major DSRs that bind mtDNA such as cyclic guanosine-monophosphate-adenosine-monophosphate synthase (cGAS), Z-DNA-binding protein 1 (ZBP1), NOD-, LRR-, and PYD- domain-containing protein 3 receptor (NLRP3), absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) and toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), and their downstream signaling cascades. We summarize the key findings, novelties, and gaps of mislocalized mtDNA as a driving signal of immune responses in vascular, metabolic, kidney, lung, and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as viral and bacterial infections. Finally, we define common strategies to induce or inhibit mtDNA release and propose challenges to advance the field.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.