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The emerging role of STING-dependent signaling on cell death

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Abstract

STING is a newly identified adaptor protein for sensing cytosolic nucleic acid. It is well established that STING plays a crucial role in innate immune response via inducing production of type I IFN. Emerging evidence suggests that the activation of STING-dependent signaling is also implicated in the process of cell death, such as apoptosis, pyroptosis, necroptosis, and autophagy. Of note, the pro-death outcome is even predominant in certain cell types, like lymphocytes, myeloid cells, and hepatocytes. Given that STING agonists are being tested for enhancing antitumor immune responses, it is necessary to fully understand the outcome of STING activation. The anti-microorganism response mediated by STING has been well described; therefore, we focus on the role of STING-dependent signaling on cell death in this review.

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Author contributions’ statement

F.S. and S.L. wrote the manuscript. Z.L. collected the references and revised the manuscript. Z.Y. helped in language editing. W.G. supervised the review.

Funding

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81602103), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20160114), Distinguished Young Scholar Project of Medical Science and Technology Development Foundation of Nanjing Department of Health (JQX17005), Key Project of Medical Science and Technology Development Foundation of Nanjing Department of Health (YKK16114), Medical Research Program of Jiangsu Provincial Commission of Health and Family Planning (Q2017007), and Wu Jieping Medical Foundation (320.2710.1817).

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  1. Feng Sun and Zhijian Liu contributed equally to this work.

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  1. Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University Medical School, 321 Zhongshan RD, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Feng Sun, Zhijian Liu, Zhengyang Yang, Song Liu & Wenxian Guan

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Sun, F., Liu, Z., Yang, Z. et al. The emerging role of STING-dependent signaling on cell death. Immunol Res 67, 290–296 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12026-019-09073-z

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