Mitochondrial DNA damage induced autophagy, cell death, and disease

Bennett Van Houten, Senyene E. Hunter, and Joel N. Meyer; Frontiers in Bioscience, Landmark, 21, 42-54, January 1, 2016.
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Several human pathologies have been associated with free radical damage and subsequent mtDNA damage and mitochondrial dysfunction. These diseases include diabetes mellitus, liver diseases (e.g. hemochromatosis), cardiovascular disease (e.g. atherosclerosis) and several neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, Friedreich’s Ataxia and Huntington’s disease). In fact, multiple studies have linked human diseases associated with oxidative stress and loss of mitochondrial function to mtDNA damage