Molecular mechanisms and cellular functions of cGAS-STING signalling

The cGAS–STING signalling axis, comprising the synthase for the second messenger cyclic GMP–AMP (cGAS) and the cyclic GMP–AMP receptor stimulator of interferon genes (STING), detects pathogenic DNA to trigger an innate immune reaction involving a strong type I interferon response against microbial infections. Notably however, besides sensing microbial DNA, the DNA sensor cGAS can also be activated by endogenous DNA, including extranuclear chromatin resulting from genotoxic stress and DNA released from mitochondria, placing cGAS–STING as an important axis in autoimmunity, sterile inflammatory responses and cellular senescence. Initial models assumed that co-localization of cGAS and DNA in the cytosol defines the specificity of the pathway for non-self, but recent work revealed that cGAS is also present in the nucleus and at the plasma membrane, and such subcellular compartmentalization was linked to signalling specificity of cGAS. Further confounding the simple view of cGAS–STING signalling as a response mechanism to infectious agents, both cGAS and STING were shown to have additional functions, independent of interferon response. These involve non-catalytic roles of cGAS in regulating DNA repair and signalling via STING to NF-κB and MAPK as well as STING-mediated induction of autophagy and lysosome- dependent cell death. We have also learnt that cGAS dimers can multimerize and undergo liquid–liquid phase separation to form biomolecular condensates that could importantly regulate cGAS activation. Here, we review the molecular mechanisms and cellular functions underlying cGAS–STING activation and signalling, particularly highlighting the newly emerging diversity of this signalling pathway and discussing how the specificity towards normal, damage-induced and infection-associated DNA could be achieved

SPFH1 and SPFH2 mediate the ubiquitination and degradation of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors in muscarinic receptor-expressing HeLa cells.

Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP(3)) receptors are endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane calcium channels that, upon activation, become substrates for the ER-associated degradation (ERAD) pathway. While it is clear that IP(3) receptors are polyubiquitinated and are transferred to the proteasome by a p97-based complex, currently very little is known about the proteins that initially select activated IP(3) receptors for ERAD. Here, we have transfected HeLa cells to stably express m3 muscarinic receptors to allow for the study of IP(3) receptor ERAD in this cell type, and show that IP(3) receptors are polyubiquitinated and then degraded by the proteasome in response to carbachol, a muscarinic agonist. In seeking to identify proteins that mediate IP(3) receptor ERAD we found that both SPFH1 and SPFH2 (also known as erlin 1 and erlin 2), which exist as a hetero-oligomeric complex, rapidly associate with IP(3) receptors in a manner that precedes polyubiquitination and the association of p97. Suppression of SPFH1 and SPFH2 expression by RNA interference markedly inhibited carbachol-induced IP(3) receptor polyubiquitination and degradation, but did not affect carbachol-induced calcium mobilization or IkappaBalpha processing, indicating that the SPFH1/2 complex is a key player in IP(3) receptor ERAD, acting at a step after IP(3) receptor activation, but prior to IP(3) receptor polyubiquitination. Suppression of SPFH1 and SPFH2 expression had only slight effects on the turnover of some exogenous model ERAD substrates, and had no effect on sterol-induced ERAD of endogenous 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase. Overall, these studies show that m3 receptor-expressing HeLa cells are a valuable system for studying IP(3) receptor ERAD, and suggest that the SPFH1/2 complex is a factor that selectively mediates the ERAD of activated IP(3) receptors