TY - JOUR AU - Acharya, Dhiraj AU - Sayyad, Zuberwasim AU - Hoenigsperger, Helene AU - Hirschenberger, Maximilian AU - Zurenski, Matthew AU - Balakrishnan, Kannan AU - Zhu, Junji AU - Gableske, Sebastian AU - Kato, Jiro AU - Zhang, Shen-Ying AU - Casanova, Jean-Laurent AU - Moss, Joel AU - Sparrer, Konstantin M J AU - Gack, Michaela U TI - TRIM23 mediates cGAS-induced autophagy in anti-HSV defense. JO - Nature Communications VL - 16 IS - 1 SN - 2041-1723 CY - [London] PB - Springer Nature M1 - DZNE-2025-00610 SP - 4418 PY - 2025 AB - The cGAS-STING pathway, well-known to elicit interferon (IFN) responses, is also a key inducer of autophagy upon virus infection or other stimuli. Whereas the mediators for cGAS-induced IFN responses are well characterized, much less is known about how cGAS elicits autophagy. Here, we report that TRIM23, a unique TRIM protein harboring both ubiquitin E3 ligase and GTPase activity, is crucial for cGAS-STING-dependent antiviral autophagy. Genetic ablation of TRIM23 impairs autophagic control of HSV-1 infection. HSV-1 infection or cGAS-STING stimulation induces TBK1-mediated TRIM23 phosphorylation at S39, which triggers TRIM23 autoubiquitination and GTPase activity and ultimately elicits autophagy. Fibroblasts from a patient with herpes simplex encephalitis heterozygous for a dominant-negative, kinase-inactivating TBK1 mutation fail to activate autophagy by TRIM23 and cGAS-STING. Our results thus identify the cGAS-STING-TBK1-TRIM23 axis as a key autophagy defense pathway and may stimulate new therapeutic interventions for viral or inflammatory diseases. KW - Autophagy: immunology KW - Humans KW - Nucleotidyltransferases: metabolism KW - Nucleotidyltransferases: genetics KW - Nucleotidyltransferases: immunology KW - Herpesvirus 1, Human: immunology KW - Herpesvirus 1, Human: physiology KW - Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases: metabolism KW - Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases: genetics KW - Membrane Proteins: metabolism KW - Membrane Proteins: genetics KW - Animals KW - Phosphorylation KW - Fibroblasts: metabolism KW - Fibroblasts: virology KW - Mice KW - Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases: metabolism KW - Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases: genetics KW - Herpes Simplex: immunology KW - Herpes Simplex: virology KW - HEK293 Cells KW - Signal Transduction KW - Ubiquitination KW - Nucleotidyltransferases (NLM Chemicals) KW - Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases (NLM Chemicals) KW - Membrane Proteins (NLM Chemicals) KW - cGAS protein, human (NLM Chemicals) KW - TBK1 protein, human (NLM Chemicals) KW - STING1 protein, human (NLM Chemicals) KW - Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases (NLM Chemicals) KW - cGAS protein, mouse (NLM Chemicals) LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 C6 - pmid:40360474 C2 - pmc:PMC12075517 DO - DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-59338-5 UR - https://pub.dzne.de/record/278654 ER -