SUMMARY The vertebrate protein STING, an intracellular sensor of cyclic dinucleotides, is critical to the innate immune response and the induction of type I interferon during pathogenic infection. Here, we show that a STING ortholog (dmSTING) exists in Drosophila, which, similar to vertebrate STING, associates with cyclic dinucleotides to initiate an innate immune response. Following infection with Listeria monocytogenes, dmSTING activates an innate immune response via activation of the NF-κB transcription factor Relish, part of the immune deficiency (IMD) pathway. DmSTING-mediated activation of the immune response reduces the levels of Listeria-induced lethality and bacterial load in the host. Of significance, dmSTING triggers an innate immune response in the absence of a known functional cyclic guanosine monophosphate (GMP)-AMP synthase (cGAS) ortholog in the fly. Together, our results demonstrate that STING is an evolutionarily conserved antimicrobial effector between flies and mammals, and it comprises a key component of host defense against pathogenic infection in Drosophila.

Most of our understanding about the physiology of fasting and starvation comes from studies of vertebrates; however, for ethical reasons, studies that monitor vertebrates through the lethal endpoint are scant. Insects are convenient models to characterize the comparative strategies used to cope with starvation because they have diverse life histories and have evolved under the omnipresent challenge of food limitation. Moreover, we can study the physiology of starvation through its natural endpoint. In this study we raised populations of five species of insects (adult grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches, and larval beetles and moths) on diets labeled with either 13C-palmitic acid or 13C-leucine to isotopically enrich the lipids or the proteins in their bodies, respectively. The insects were allowed to become postabsorptive and then starved. We periodically measured the δ13C of the exhaled breath to characterize how each species adjusted their reliance on endogenous lipids and proteins as energy sources. We found that starving insects employ a wide range of strategies for regulating lipid and protein oxidation. All of the insects except for the beetle larvae were capable of sharply reducing reliance on protein oxidation; however, this protein sparing strategy was usually unsustainable during the entire starvation period. All insects increased their reliance on lipid oxidation, but while some species (grasshoppers, cockroaches, and beetle larvae) were still relying extensively on lipids at the time of death, other species (crickets and moth larvae) allowed rates of lipid oxidation to return to prestarvation levels. Although lipids and proteins are critical metabolic fuels for both vertebrates and insects, insects apparently exhibit a much wider range of strategies for rationing these limited resources during starvation.

Pythons digesting rodent meals exhibit up to 10-fold increases in their resting metabolic rate (RMR); this increase in RMR is termed specific dynamic action (SDA). Studies have shown that SDA is partially fueled by oxidizing dietary nutrients, yet it remains unclear whether the proteins and the lipids in their meals contribute equally to this energy demand. We raised two populations of mice on diets labeled with either [ 13 C]leucine or [ 13 C]palmitic acid to intrinsically enrich the proteins and lipids in their bodies, respectively. Ball pythons (Python regius) were fed whole mice (and pureed mice 3 weeks later), after which we measured their metabolic rates and the δ 13 C in the breath. The δ 13C values in the whole bodies of the protein-and lipid-labeled mice were generally similar (i.e. 5.7±4.7‰ and 2.8±5.4‰, respectively) but the oxidative kinetics of these two macronutrient pools were quite different. We found that the snakes oxidized 5% of the protein and only 0.24% of the lipids in their meals within 14 days. Oxidation of the dietary proteins peaked 24 h after ingestion, at which point these proteins provided ∼90% of the metabolic requirement of the snakes, and by 14 days the oxidation of these proteins decreased to nearly zero. The oxidation of the dietary lipids peaked 1 day later, at which point these lipids supplied ∼25% of the energy demand. Fourteen days after ingestion, these lipids were still being oxidized and continued to account for ∼25% of the metabolic rate. Pureeing the mice reduced the cost of gastric digestion and decreased SDA by 24%. Pureeing also reduced the oxidation of dietary proteins by 43%, but it had no effect on the rates of dietary lipid oxidation. Collectively, these results demonstrate that pythons are able to effectively partition the two primary metabolic fuels in their meals. This approach of uniquely labeling the different components of the diet will allow researchers to examine new questions about how and when animals use the nutrients in their meals.

Deregulation of apoptosis is central to cancer progression and a major obstacle to effective treatment. The Bcl-2 gene family members play important roles in the regulation of apoptosis and are frequently altered in cancers. One such member is pro-apoptotic protein Bcl-2-related Ovarian Killer (BOK). Despite its critical role in apoptosis, the regulation of BOK expression is poorly understood in cancers. Here, we discovered that miR-296-5p regulates BOK expression by binding to its 3’-UTR in breast cancers. Interestingly, miR-296-5p also regulates the expression of anti-apoptotic protein myeloid cell leukemia 1 (Mcl-1), which is highly expressed in breast cancers. Our results reveal that Mcl-1 and BOK constitute a regulatory feedback loop as ectopic BOK expression induces Mcl-1, whereas silencing of Mcl-1 results in reduced BOK levels in breast cancer cells. In addition, we show that silencing of Mcl-1 but not BOK reduced the long-term growth of breast cancer cells. Silencing of both Mcl-1 and BOK rescued the effect of Mcl-1 silencing on breast cancer cell growth, suggesting that BOK is important for attenuating cell growth in the absence of Mcl-1. Depletion of BOK suppressed caspase-3 activation in the presence of paclitaxel and in turn protected cells from paclitaxel-induced apoptosis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that glycogen synthase kinase (GSK3) α/β interacts with BOK and regulates its level post-translationally in breast cancer cells. Taken together, our results suggest that fine tuning of the levels of pro-apoptotic protein BOK and anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1 may decide the fate of cancer cells to either undergo apoptosis or proliferation.

Innate immunity, the first line of defense against invading pathogens, is an ancient form of host defense found in all animals, from sponges to humans. During infection, innate immune receptors recognize conserved molecular patterns, such as microbial surface molecules, metabolites produces during infection, or nucleic acids of the microbe’s genome. When initiated, the innate immune response activates a host defense program that leads to the synthesis proteins capable of pathogen killing. In mammals, the induction of cytokines during the innate immune response leads to the recruitment of professional immune cells to the site of infection, leading to an adaptive immune response. While a fully functional innate immune response is crucial for a proper host response and curbing microbial infection, if the innate immune response is dysfunctional and is activated in the absence of infection, autoinflammation and autoimmune disorders can develop. Therefore, it follows that the innate immune response must be tightly controlled to avoid an autoimmune response from host-derived molecules, yet still unencumbered to respond to infection. In this review, we will focus on the innate immune response activated from cytosolic nucleic acids, derived from the microbe or host itself. We will depict how viruses and bacteria activate these nucleic acid sensing pathways and their mechanisms to inhibit the pathways. We will also describe the autoinflammatory and autoimmune disorders that develop when these pathways are hyperactive. Finally, we will discuss gaps in knowledge with regard to innate immune response failure and identify where further research is needed.