CGAS and bacterial infectious disease: Oxidatively damaged mtDNA has been increasingly recognized as an important damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) in bacterial infections that can be released into the cytosol, extracellular space, or bloodstream, where it can trigger inflammatory cascades when recognized by pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), including Toll-like receptors, inflammasomes, and the cyclic AMP-GMP synthase (cGAS) stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway.