title: Advances in the understanding of mitochondrial DNA as a pathogenic factor in inflammatory diseases.
abstract: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has many similarities with bacterial DNA because of their shared common ancestry. Increasing evidence demonstrates mtDNA to be a potent danger signal that is recognised by the innate immune system and can directly modulate the inflammatory response. In humans, elevated circulating mtDNA is found in conditions with significant tissue injury such as trauma and sepsis and increasingly in chronic organ-specific and systemic illnesses such as steatohepatitis and systemic lupus erythematosus. In this review, we examine our current understanding of mtDNA-mediated inflammation and how the mechanisms regulating mitochondrial homeostasis and mtDNA release represent exciting and previously under-recognised important factors in many human inflammatory diseases, offering many new translational opportunities.
authors.affiliation: MRC Centre for Inflammation Research Queens Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, 47 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, EH16 4TJ, UK; Department of Gastroenterology, Monash Health, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Ray K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Boyapati
authors.affiliation: MRC Centre for Inflammation Research Queens Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, 47 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, EH16 4TJ, UK.
authors.forename: Arina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tamborska
authors.affiliation: MRC Centre for Inflammation Research Queens Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, 47 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, EH16 4TJ, UK.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Dorward
authors.affiliation: MRC Centre for Inflammation Research Queens Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, 47 Little France Crescent, Edinburgh, EH16 4TJ, UK.
authors.forename: Gwo-Tzer
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6014-372X
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Ho
keywords: inflammatory diseases; mitochondrial DNA; mtDNA; mtDNA-mediated inflammation