Abstract
Accumulated evidence implicates lipid peroxidation as a key mechanism contributing to the pathogenesis of lupus nephritis (LN). Ferroptosis is a specialized form of cell death induced by loss or deficient activity of the glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) and decreased clearance of polyunsaturated fatty acid hydroperoxides. STING production may lead to the occurrence of intracellular lipid peroxidation, ultimately triggering ferroptosis, but it has not been clarified whether STING can aggravate LN via ferroptosis. The adjacent normal kidney tissues from renal cell carcinoma and biopsied kidney tissue samples from LN patients were used for research, and the expression of STING protein in kidney tissue was detected by immunohistochemistry and RT-qPCR. MRL/lpr mice, a model of LN, were used to detect STING expression in kidney tissue. STING expression in the kidney tissue of MRL/lpr mice was knocked down by sh-STING-AAV, and then levels of 4-HNE, MDA, ROS, iron ion, blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine, IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α, and the protein expression of STING, TBK1, NF-κB, GPX4, ACSL4, and SLC7A11 were subsequently examined. STING was elevated in the kidney tissue of LN patients and MRL/lpr mice. Compared with the MRL/lpr group, liproxstatin-1 or ferrostatin-1 treatment alleviated ferroptosis-related indicators 4-HNE, MDA, ROS, iron ion release, and GPX4 and SLC7A1 expression, whereas the treatment enhanced ACSL4 expression. STING interference observably decreased 4-HNE, ROS, MDA, iron ion, STING, and ACSL4 levels, and increased GPX4 and SLC7A11 expression in MRL/lpr mice kidney tissues. Besides, inhibition of STING reduced kidney tissue damage and inflammatory cell infiltration in MRL/lpr mice, and levels of serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, serum anti-double-stranded DNA antibody, inflammatory factors IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α, as well as phosphorylation of NF-κB were all significantly decreased in MRL/lpr mice. TBK1 overexpression reversed the impact of STING inhibition on ferroptosis and inflammatory response. STING contributed to ferroptosis and inflammatory response by activating the TBK1/NF-κB pathway, suggesting that STING may be a potent therapeutic target in LN.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alli AA, Desai D, Elshika A, et al. 2022 Kidney tubular epithelial cell ferroptosis links glomerular injury to tubulointerstitial pathology in lupus nephritis. Clin. Immunol. 248 109213
Anders HJ, Saxena R, Zhao MH, et al. 2020 Lupus nephritis. Nat. Rev. Dis. Primers 6 7
Baatarjav C, Komada T, Karasawa T, et al. 2022 dsDNA-induced AIM2 pyroptosis halts aberrant inflammation during rhabdomyolysis-induced acute kidney injury. Cell Death Differ. 29 2487–2502
Cheng WY, He XB, Jia HJ, et al. 2018 The cGas-sting signaling pathway is required for the innate immune response against ectromelia virus. Front. Immunol. 9 1297
Dixon SJ, Lemberg KM, Lamprecht MR, et al. 2012 Ferroptosis: an iron-dependent form of nonapoptotic cell death. Cell 149 1060–1072
Fitzgerald KA, McWhirter SM, Faia KL, et al. 2003 IKKepsilon and TBK1 are essential components of the IRF3 signaling pathway. Nat. Immunol. 4 491–496
Green YS, Ferreira Dos Santos MC, Fuja DG, et al. 2022 ISCA2 inhibition decreases HIF and induces ferroptosis in clear cell renal carcinoma. Oncogene 41 4709–4723
Hassannia B, Vandenabeele P and Vanden BT 2019 Targeting ferroptosis to iron out cancer. Cancer Cell 35 830–849
Hopfner KP and Hornung V 2020 Molecular mechanisms and cellular functions of cGAS-STING signalling. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 21 501–521
Jiang M, Chen P, Wang L, et al. 2020 cGAS-STING, an important pathway in cancer immunotherapy. J. Hematol. Oncol. 13 81
Jolly M, Toloza S, Goker B, et al. 2018 Disease-specific quality of life in patients with lupus nephritis. Lupus 27 257–264
Ko TP, Wang YC, Yang CS, et al. 2022 Crystal structure and functional implication of bacterial STING. Nat. Commun. 13 26
Kong C, Ni X, Wang Y, et al. 2022 ICA69 aggravates ferroptosis causing septic cardiac dysfunction via STING trafficking. Cell Death Discov. 8 187
Li Y, Cao Y, Xiao J, et al. 2020 Inhibitor of apoptosis-stimulating protein of p53 inhibits ferroptosis and alleviates intestinal ischemia/reperfusion-induced acute lung injury. Cell Death Differ. 27 2635–2650
Li C, Liu J, Hou W, et al. 2021 STING1 Promotes ferroptosis through MFN1/2-dependent mitochondrial fusion. Front. Cell Dev. Biol. 9 698679
Li H, Hu L, Wang L, et al. 2022a Iron activates cGAS-STING signaling and promotes hepatic inflammation. J. Agric. Food Chem. 70 2211–2220
Li Q, Chen Q, Yang X, et al. 2022b Cocktail strategy based on a dual function nanoparticle and immune activator for effective tumor suppressive. J. Nanobiotechnol. 20 84
Liu P, Feng Y, Li H, et al. 2020 Ferrostatin-1 alleviates lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury via inhibiting ferroptosis. Cell Mol. Biol. Lett. 25 10
Ma R, Ortiz Serrano TP, Davis J, et al. 2020 The cGAS-STING pathway: The role of self-DNA sensing in inflammatory lung disease. FASEB J. 34 13156–13170
Müller T, Dewitz C, Schmitz J, et al. 2017 Necroptosis and ferroptosis are alternative cell death pathways that operate in acute kidney failure. Cell Mol. Life Sci. 74 3631–3645
Murthy AMV, Robinson N and Kumar S 2020 Crosstalk between cGAS-STING signaling and cell death. Cell Death Differ. 27 2989–3003
Paludan SR and Bowie AG 2013 Immune sensing of DNA. Immunity 38 870–880
Parikh SV, Almaani S, Brodsky S, et al. 2020 Update on lupus nephritis: Core curriculum 2020. Am. J. Kidney Dis. 76 265–281
Paul BD, Snyder SH and Bohr VA 2021 Signaling by cGAS-STING in neurodegeneration, neuroinflammation, and aging. Trends Neurosci. 44 83–96
Prabakaran T, Troldborg A, Kumpunya S, et al. 2021 A STING antagonist modulating the interaction with STIM1 blocks ER-to-Golgi trafficking and inhibits lupus pathology. EBioMedicine 66 103314
Tektonidou MG, Dasgupta A and Ward MM 2016 Risk of end-stage renal disease in patients with lupus nephritis, 1971–2015: a systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 68 1432–1441
Tsokos GC, Lo MS, Costa Reis P, et al. 2016 New insights into the immunopathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus. Nat. Rev. Rheumatol. 12 716–730
Wang W, Lin Z, Feng J, et al. 2022 Identification of ferroptosis-related molecular markers in glomeruli and tubulointerstitium of lupus nephritis. Lupus 31 985–997
Woo SR, Fuertes MB, Corrales L, et al. 2014 STING-dependent cytosolic DNA sensing mediates innate immune recognition of immunogenic tumors. Immunity 41 830–842
Yuan M, Guo XL, Chen JH, et al. 2022 Anlotinib suppresses proliferation, migration, and immune escape of gastric cancer cells by activating the cGAS-STING/IFN-β pathway. Neoplasma 69 807–819
Zhang C, Shang G, Gui X, et al. 2019 Structural basis of STING binding with and phosphorylation by TBK1. Nature 567 394–398
Zhang S, Kang L, Dai X, et al. 2022 Manganese induces tumor cell ferroptosis through type-I IFN dependent inhibition of mitochondrial dihydroorotate dehydrogenase. Free Radic. Biol. Med. 193 202–212
Zhao B, Du F, Xu P, et al. 2019 A conserved PLPLRT/SD motif of STING mediates the recruitment and activation of TBK1. Nature 569 718–722
Funding
This work was supported by grants from the project supported by Hainan Province Clinical Medical Center (QWYH202175), Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province, Project number (821RC1130), The excellent Talent Team of Hainan Province (No. QRCBT202121).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
JC and ZX were responsible for research design. PC, YS, and JW were responsible for conducting experiments. FW and JS were responsible for data acquisition. JC, PC, and FW were responsible for data analysis. ZX and JC were responsible for writing the manuscript. All authors have contributed to the completion of this paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript.
Additional information
Corresponding editor: Dipankar Nandi
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, J., Chen, P., Song, Y. et al. STING upregulation mediates ferroptosis and inflammatory response in lupus nephritis by upregulating TBK1 and activating NF-κB signal pathway. J Biosci 49, 9 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-023-00381-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-023-00381-z