Leigh Syndrome Pathomechanism Involves Region-Specific Innate Immune Activation in Ndufs4 Knockout Mice

Belinda R Fouché; Sibonelo G Khumalo; Werner J H Koopman; Marianne Venter

doi:10.1007/s10571-026-01681-2

Leigh Syndrome Pathomechanism Involves Region-Specific Innate Immune Activation in Ndufs4 Knockout Mice

Cell Mol Neurobiol. 2026 Feb 4;46(1):42. doi: 10.1007/s10571-026-01681-2.

Authors

Belinda R Fouché¹, Sibonelo G Khumalo¹, Werner J H Koopman^{2

3}, Marianne Venter⁴

Affiliations

¹ Biomedical and Molecular Metabolism Research (BioMMet), North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
² Department of Pediatrics, Radboud Center for Mitochondrial Medicine (RCMM), Amalia Children's Hospital, Radboud University Medical Center (Radboudumc), Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
³ Human and Animal Physiology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, GE, The Netherlands.
⁴ Biomedical and Molecular Metabolism Research (BioMMet), North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. Marianne.pretorius@nwu.ac.za.

Abstract

Although recent evidence suggests that the immune system contributes to the pathogenesis of paediatric Leigh syndrome, detailed mechanistic insights are still lacking. Here, we investigated the involvement of immune system activation and inflammation in brain tissue in Leigh syndrome, using hypothesis generating methods. We compared the transcriptomes of olfactory bulb and cerebellum from male Ndufs4^−/− (knockout) mice (n = 5–6), a well-established model of paediatric Leigh syndrome. Relative to wildtype animals, knockout mice displayed enrichment of innate immune system pathways in the olfactory bulb. Unexpectedly, relative to the olfactory bulb, few pathways were enriched in the cerebellum, and none that indicated similar changes to the immune system. Innate immune system pathways in the olfactory bulb were mainly upregulated and included a large set of interferon stimulated genes, and genes involved in JAK-STAT and retinoic acid-inducible gene 1-like signalling, interleukins, interferon receptors and endogenous double strand RNA sensors. We propose that innate immune system activation starts in the olfactory bulb, is mediated by the retinoic acid-inducible gene 1-like signalling pathway in response to increased cytosolic double-strand RNA, leading to chemokines that recruit leukocytes to other brain regions to elicit an immune response. Our results fill in the gap between mitochondrial dysfunction and activation of the innate immune response, which has been reported by others. Our findings strongly suggest that immune system activation constitutes part of the Leigh syndrome pathomechanism, which is compatible with the improvement observed in mitochondrial disease patients following immune system-targeting interventions.

Graphical Abstract:

Enrichment of innate immune system pathways in olfactory bulb, but not cerebellum of Ndufs4^−/− mice. Transcriptomic analysis of Ndufs4^−/− mice brain tissues reveals enrichment of JAK-STAT and RIG-I-like receptor signalling pathways in olfactory bulb. We propose a pathomechanism of Leigh syndrome which starts with endogenous dsRNA molecules activating these signalling pathways, leading to chemokines that recruit leukocytes to other brain regions to elicit an immune response. Figure created with BioRender

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10571-026-01681-2.

Keywords: Ndufs4 knockout mouse model; Neuroinflammation; Olfactory bulb; RIG-I like signalling; Transcriptomics.