By Merin C. MacDonald | Date Published: May 14, 2024
Study from the Fitzgerald and Rothstein Labs Finds Potential Therapeutic Targets for SAVI Lung Disease
Featured on Biomedical Picture of the Day, this beautiful image is from the study, “Endothelial cell expression of a STING gain-of-function mutation initiates pulmonary lymphocytic infiltration,” recently published in Cell Reports.
Patients with Stimulator of interferon gene (STING) gain-of-function (GOF) mutations develop STING-associated vasculopathy with onset in infancy (SAVI), a severe autoinflammatory lung disease. Here, Kevin Gao, an MD/PhD student in the labs of Drs. Kate Fitzgerald and Ann Marshak-Rothstein, and fellow contributors from the Department of Medicine, utilized a mouse model to show the importance of endothelial cells with the STING GOF mutation in triggering immune cell recruitment to the lungs of SAVI mice. This could indicate a key role for endothelial STING activation in the initiation of SAVI lung disease, which could be potentially targeted for therapeutics.
