# Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus Antagonizes the cGAS-STING Pathway

## TL;DR

This study shows how Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus (VEEV) blocks a key immune pathway, STING, to avoid detection and limit its replication.

## Contribution

The study reveals that VEEV suppresses STING phosphorylation and identifies a potential therapeutic strategy by priming the STING pathway before infection.

## Key findings

- VEEV induces interferon-stimulated genes during late infection without STING phosphorylation at Ser366.
- Priming the STING pathway with dsDNA reduces alphavirus replication.
- VEEV inhibits STING phosphorylation in a multiplicity of infection-dependent manner.

## Abstract

What are the main findings?
VEEV induces interferon-stimulated gene expression during late viral infection independent of STING phosphorylation at residue Ser366.VEEV suppresses agonist-induced phosphorylation of STING (Ser366).Priming the STING pathway with dsDNA suppresses alphavirus replication.

VEEV induces interferon-stimulated gene expression during late viral infection independent of STING phosphorylation at residue Ser366.

VEEV suppresses agonist-induced phosphorylation of STING (Ser366).

Priming the STING pathway with dsDNA suppresses alphavirus replication.

What are the implications of the main findings?
Elucidating the mechanism by which VEEV suppresses phosphorylation of STING (Ser366) may reveal viral–host interactions with relevance for future therapeutic exploration.

Elucidating the mechanism by which VEEV suppresses phosphorylation of STING (Ser366) may reveal viral–host interactions with relevance for future therapeutic exploration.

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is a mosquito-borne pathogen causing low mortality but high morbidity in humans, with 4–14% cases exhibiting neurological complications. While the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase–stimulator of interferon genes (cGAS–STING) pathway is canonically associated with double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) detection, it has been shown to respond to RNA viruses and subsequently limit viral pathogenesis. Several viruses antagonize this signaling cascade, underscoring the importance that cGAS–STING plays in host immunity. Previous studies regarding single-stranded RNA viruses revealed that cGAS–STING limits viral replication in Old World alphavirus chikungunya virus infections, but little is known about New World alphaviruses such as VEEV. Here, we investigate the impact that STING activation has on VEEV infection as a potential prophylactic and therapeutic intervention. VEEV infection alone did not induce STING phosphorylation at Ser366, but interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) were upregulated during the late phase of infection. Loss of STING through siRNA showed a partial dependency on STING for ISG transcription, suggesting that STING activation may occur through a noncanonical process. Priming of the STING pathway prior to infection was found to be critical in limiting viral replication; however, targeting STING activation post-infection abrogated the antiviral effects that dsDNA had on VEEV. VEEV suppressed STING phosphorylation in a multiplicity of infection (MOI)-dependent manner with the most robust pSTING (Ser366) inhibition observed at an MOI of 10. Collectively, our results suggest that VEEV antagonizes canonical STING activation.