Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2020 Sep 20;1:7. doi: 10.1186/s43556-020-00006-z

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© The Author(s) 2020

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

PMC Copyright notice

Fig. 2 — Source and function of cytosolic DNA. The cytosolic dsDNA pool is composed of DNA originating from retroviruses, DNA viruses, mitotic defects, mitochondria, intracellular prokaryotes and DNA rupture debris from the nuclei. In the cytosol, these DNA are either degraded by DNase III and TREX1 or sensed by DNA sensors. Once sensed by cytosolic sensors including AIM2, RNaseIII, cGAS and DAI, a cascade of reactions are triggered. Downstream signal molecules regulate the expression of immune-related genes, eventually leading to DNA clearance or cell death. In addition, DNA also comes from dead cells and bacteria. Membrane vesicles are formed by endocytosis and DNA is transported into the cell. DNase II is localized in lysosomes and digests DNA from pathogens and dead cells that end up in this cellular compartment. TLR9 directly binds with the remaining unmethylated CpG DNA and triggers downstream immune activation, inducing the expression of inflammation-related genes