Abstract

Constitutive activation of STING by gain-of-function mutations triggers manifestation of the systemic autoinflammatory disease STING-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (SAVI). In order to investigate the role of signaling by tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in SAVI, we used genetic inactivation of TNF receptors 1 and 2 in murine SAVI, which is characterized by T cell lymphopenia, inflammatory lung disease and neurodegeneration. Genetic inactivation of TNFR1 and TNFR2, however, rescued the loss of thymocytes, reduced interstitial lung disease and neurodegeneration. Furthermore, genetic inactivation of TNFR1 and TNFR2 blunted transcription of cytokines, chemokines and adhesions proteins, which result from chronic STING activation in SAVI mice. In addition, increased transendothelial migration of neutrophils was ameliorated. Taken together, our results demonstrate a pivotal role of TNFR-signaling in the pathogenesis of SAVI in mice and suggest that available TNFR antagonists could ameliorate SAVI in patients.

Data availability

Transcriptomic data are deposited on GEO database, Accession no GSE244062.

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Hella Luksch

    Department of Pediatrics, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-7070-4992
  2. Felix Schulze

    Department of Pediatrics, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8220-5012
  3. David Geißler-Lösch

    Department of Neurology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0009-0006-8332-2145
  4. David Sprott

    Department of Physiology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Lennart Höfs

    Department of Neurology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Eva M Szegö

    Department of Neurology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Wulf Tonnus

    Department of Internal Medicine III, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9728-1413
  8. Stefan Winkler

    Department of Pediatrics, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Claudia Günther

    Department of Dermatology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4330-1861
  10. Andreas Linkermann

    Department of Internal Medicine III, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-6287-9725
  11. Rayk Behrendt

    Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1091-2877
  12. Lino L Teichmann

    Department of Medicine III, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-9489-7282
  13. Björn H Falkenburger

    Department of Neurology, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-2387-526X
  14. Angela Rösen-Wolff

    Department of Pediatrics, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany
    For correspondence
    angela.roesen-wolff@uniklinikum-dresden.de
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9613-5879

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (369799452-TRR237)

  • Felix Schulze

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EXC2151 - 390873048)

  • Rayk Behrendt

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All mice experiments were approved by the Landesdirektion Sachsen (TVV 4/2019, TVV 13/2019) and carried out in accordance with the institutional guidelines on animal welfare.

Copyright

© 2025, Luksch et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Hella Luksch
  2. Felix Schulze
  3. David Geißler-Lösch
  4. David Sprott
  5. Lennart Höfs
  6. Eva M Szegö
  7. Wulf Tonnus
  8. Stefan Winkler
  9. Claudia Günther
  10. Andreas Linkermann
  11. Rayk Behrendt
  12. Lino L Teichmann
  13. Björn H Falkenburger
  14. Angela Rösen-Wolff
(2025)
Tissue inflammation induced by constitutively active STING is mediated by enhanced TNF signaling
eLife 14:e101350.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.101350

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.101350

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