STING polymer structure reveals mechanisms for activation, hyperactivation, and inhibition

Abstract

How the central innate immune protein, STING, is activated by its ligands remains unknown. Here, using structural biology and biochemistry, we report that the metazoan second messenger 23-cGAMP induces closing of the human STING homodimer and release of the STING C-terminal tail, which exposes a polymerization interface on the STING dimer and leads to the formation of disulfide-linked polymers via cysteine residue 148. Disease-causing hyperactive STING mutations either flank C148 and depend on disulfide formation or reside in the C-terminal tail binding site and cause constitutive C-terminal tail release and polymerization. Finally, bacterial cyclic-di-GMP induces an alternative active STING conformation, activates STING in a cooperative manner, and acts as a partial antagonist of 23-cGAMP signaling. Our insights explain the tight control of STING signaling given varying background activation signals and provide a novel therapeutic hypothesis for autoimmune syndrome treatment.