Establishment and application of STING agonist in-vitro screening model

Tumor immunotherapy is a critical field in the development of anticancer drugs. The research of stimulator of interferon genes (STING) agonist provides a new idea for immunotherapy. Innate immune response can effectively be induced by nucleic acids in mammalian cytoplasm. In recent years, a large number of studies have confirmed that the cGAS-cGAMP-STING signaling pathway plays a key role in cytoplasmic DNA recognition and immune defense activation. The dysfunction of cGAS-cGAMP-STING is closely related to the tumorigenesis, and is a potent target for drug development. In this study, based on THP-1 dual cells which are stably expressing cGAS-STING pathway and THP-1 KO-STING cells which are stably depleted STING, a screening method for STING agonists was established by detection of luciferase. Furthermore, the accuracy and sensitivity of the model were verified using positive compound, providing a simple, efficient and accurate screening platform for high-throughput screening of STING agonists.