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Mitochondrial molecule controls inflammation

Cellular organelles called mitochondria contain their own DNA and RNA. The molecule fumarate has now been found to trigger the release of these nucleic acids into the cytosol, aberrantly activating inflammation.
  1. Taylor A. Poor

    1. Taylor A. Poor is in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.

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  2. Navdeep S. Chandel

    1. Navdeep S. Chandel is in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA, and in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Feinberg School of Medicine.

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Although mitochondria are often referred to as the powerhouses of the cell, these organelles can also act as signalling hubs that control physiological processes1. One such signalling pathway controls inflammation2. Writing in Nature, Zecchini et al.3 and Hooftman et al.4 report that fumarate (a molecule produced as an intermediate of metabolic processes in mitochondria) triggers the activation of specific inflammation-related pathways. Their findings have implications for cancer and inflammatory diseases.

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Nature 615, 401-402 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00596-y

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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