Research reveals that the cellular sensor protein STING induces necroptotic inflammation, and that this mechanism underlies inflammatory disease in a mouse model of STING-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (SAVI). The findings also suggest a potential therapeutic approach for STING-driven autoinflammatory diseases.

“By establishing that STING-driven necroptosis causes pathological inflammation in SAVI, our work provides the first direct evidence that necroptosis can act as a pathogenic mechanism in its own right, not merely as a fail-safe in the absence of apoptosis,” notes Gianmaria Liccardi, corresponding author of the paper published in Nature.