PINK1 and acute respiratory distress syndrome: Zhuang et al. (2021) discovered that MCTR3 obstructs the ALX/PINK1 pathway in lung cells, diminishing mitophagy and lessening the severity of LPS-induced ALI. Furthermore, overexpression of PGC-1α (PPARγ coactivator 1α) elevates transcription factor EB (TFEB) expression, facilitating mitophagy in alveolar epithelial cells to ameliorate LPS-induced ALI (Liu et al., 2019b, 2021a).