Mitochondrial Communication and Trafficking in Health and Disease

Mitochondria are increasingly recognized as dynamic signaling hubs that influence cell fate not only through bioenergetics, but also through exchange of information across compartments, cells, and tissues. Current work highlights nuclear-to-mitochondrial RNA trafficking, mitochondria-to-nucleus retrograde signaling, extracellular vesicle-associated mitochondrial cargo, direct intercellular transfer of mitochondria, and emerging transplantation strategies as convergent mechanisms that regulate tissue homeostasis and disease. These processes are now implicated in obesity-associated cardiac dysfunction, heart failure, cancer progression and immune escape, aging, and tissue repair.This Research Topic aims to define how mitochondria communicate within cells, between cells, and across tissues, and how these communication pathways shape physiology, disease progression, and therapeutic response.This Research Topic includes, but is not limited to, the following areas:1. Intracellular mitochondrial communication: mitonuclear signaling, retrograde responses, RNA trafficking to mitochondria, mitochondrial non-coding RNAs and mitomiRs, and communication-linked regulation of ROS, calcium handling, and metabolic remodeling.2. Extracellular and intercellular mitochondrial communication: extracellular vesicle-associated mitochondrial proteins, RNAs, or mtDNA; mitochondria-derived vesicles; whole-mitochondrion transfer; and intercellular or inter-organ mitochondrial crosstalk.3. Disease relevance: mitochondrial communication in cardiometabolic disease, obesity-associated cardiac dysfunction, heart failure, ischemia-reperfusion injury, cancer progression and metastasis, aging, senescence, inflammation, and tissue repair.4. Biomarkers, methods, and translation: liquid biopsy and EV-based biomarkers, mtDNA-based readouts, single-cell and multi-omics approaches to mitochondrial communication, engineered mitochondrial delivery, and transfer/transplantation strategies. Topic editors: Samarjit Das, Keshav K Singh Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79500/mitochondrial-communication-and-trafficking-in-health-and-disease