STING signalling: an emerging common pathway in autoimmunity and cancer

The equipoise between the disease states of cancer and autoinflammation has perhaps been underappreciated in clinical practice and biomedical research. However, since the discover of STING (stimulator of interferon genes) as an integral regulator of innate immunity, a wealth of information has implicated this signaling pathway in both of these diseases. Under cellular homeostasis, STING serves to detect – and promote immune defense against – DNA viruses and intracellular bacteria, as described in its initial discovery. The role of STING has since been expanded to include tumor surveillance and immune responses to cancer; indeed, defective STING responses are associated with certain cancers. Conversely, constitutive activation of this pathway can result in autoinflammatory disease, whereby STING is over-stimulated by self-DNA. This review explores the current state of STING research, concluding that further elucidation of the details of the STING pathway may offer novel therapeutics for these diseases, which are of considerable clinical gravity.