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Neufeldt et al., 2021, SARS-CoV-2 infection induces a pro-inflammatory cytokine response through cGAS-STING and NF-κB, communications biology
SARS-CoV-2 is a novel virus that has rapidly spread, causing a global pandemic. In the
majority of infected patients, SARS-CoV-2 leads to mild disease; however, in a significant
proportion of infections, individuals develop severe symptoms that can lead to long-lasting
lung damage or death. These severe cases are often associated with high levels of pro-
inflammatory cytokines and low antiviral responses, which can cause systemic complications.
Here, we have evaluated transcriptional and cytokine secretion profiles and detected a distinct
upregulation of inflammatory cytokines in infected cell cultures and samples taken from
infected patients. Building on these observations, we found a specific activation of NF-κB and
a block of IRF3 nuclear translocation in SARS-CoV-2 infected cells. This NF-κB response
was mediated by cGAS-STING activation and could be attenuated through several STING-
targeting drugs. Our results show that SARS-CoV-2 directs a cGAS-STING mediated, NF-κB-driven
inflammatory immune response in human epithelial cells that likely contributes to
inflammatory responses seen in patients and could be therapeutically targeted to suppress severe disease symptoms
Should you encounter any issues or have any questions please contact Christopher Neufeldt [email protected] or Florian Heigwer [email protected].
Raw sequencing read data are deposit at GEO under the Study Accession: GSE189086