IFNA1 and infection: Mitochondria exhibit a pivotal role in mediating the IFN response upon infection by releasing mtDNA (or other DAMPs) to the cytosol, further boosting IFN production and immunosurveillance toward pathogens (Rongvaux et al., 2014; White et al., 2014; West et al., 2015; Sun et al., 2017).