Mitochondrial vulnerability underlies myocarditis from COVID-19 mRNA vaccine
mice, suggesting a protective role for estrogen signaling. Notably, mRNA vaccination induced mitochondrial reactive oxygen species, resulting in RIPK3 activation, a necroptosis-related kinase, in cardiomyocytes. Collectively, we propose that mitochondrial vulnerability is a potential risk factor for myocarditis following mRNA vaccination, possibly through reactive oxygen species-mediated necroptosis signaling.
Authors
- Atsushi Kawaguchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5485-1578)
- Kazuto Nakada (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3092-1807)
- Hiroaki Tamashiro
- Kaori Ishikawa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9895-5996)
- Hayate Suzuki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0447-6264)
- Seiya Mizuno (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6740-5817)
- Masayoshi Yamamoto
- Go Mori
Institutions
- University of Tsukuba (JP)
- Tsukuba Medical Center Hospital (JP)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-04-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71295-1
- Primary Topic
- Viral Infections and Immunology Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Research Promotion Foundation
- Shionogi
- University of Tsukuba
- Japan Science and Technology Agency
- Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology
- Co-creation place formation support program