Guest Editor: Asso. Prof. Simon Johnson              Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.              Email: simoncj@u.washington.edu              Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TT9aI10AAAAJ&hl=en

Introduction

Mitochondrial dysfunction is linked to a range of human pathologies including heritable genetic mitochondrial diseases, complex multigenic human traits, environmental toxicities, nutrition-related conditions, age-related diseases, and aging itself. Mitochondria are the organelles best known for the roles they play in the production of ATP and are often thought of as simply the ‘powerhouse of the cell’. Contrary to this simplified view, mitochondria perform a wide range of critical functions including modulation of nutrient signaling pathways, maintenance of proteostasis, regulation of programmed cell death, calcium buffering, production of reactive oxygen species, and regulation of redox. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of aging, and dysregulation of mitochondrial processes plays a major role in many aging-related diseases. The most notable examples are age-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, where mutations in mitochondrial quality control pathways and environmental mitotoxins have been independently causally linked to the disease. The precise mechanistic relationships between individual mitochondria-regulated processes and various age-related diseases, and aging, is an active area of study, with a great deal left to resolve. Given the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in human disease, strategies and agents designed to target mitochondria are of great interest to public health, particularly with respect to age-related diseases.

Completion Date

March 28, 2023

Participants

Veena Raizada, UNM Health Sciences Centerdisabled, Albuquerque, USA.
Eung Kweon Kim, Saevit Eye Hospital, Goyang, South Korea.
Chuan-an Shen, The Department of Burns and Plastic Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, China.
José Luis Gómez-Ariza, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Experimental Sciences, Campus El Carmen, University of Huelva. Research Center for Natural Resources, Health and the Environment, Campus El Carmen, University of Huelva, Av. del Tres de Marzo, 3, 21007, Huelva, Spain.
Kay F Macleod, The Committee on Cancer Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, USA.
Xinran Zhu, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Bochum, German.