Immunology and Microbiology› Immunology› interferon and immune responses

HIV — Cytosolic DNA sensing (IFI16–STING) in CD4+ T cells

Submitted 2026-10-23

Field: Immunology and Microbiology › ImmunologyType: No effect foundArea: hivTarget: Cytosolic DNA sensing (IFI16–STING) in CD4+ T cellsStage: preclinical

Hypothesis

Human T cells, which contain the DNA-sensing machinery, would respond to foreign DNA in the cytoplasm by making type I interferon and restricting HIV.

What failed

The DNA sensor IFI16 moved to foreign DNA and recruited STING and TBK1, but the T cells did not make interferon or interferon-stimulated genes, and cytoplasmic DNA did not affect HIV replication.

Broken assumption

Cells that contain the DNA-sensing proteins can use them to start an interferon response.

Why

The authors propose that the DNA signalling pathway is impaired somewhere after STING and TBK1 in T cells. Added interferon still suppressed HIV.

From the published paper: Berg et al. PLoS ONE, 2014. ↗CC BY

Research ideas from this failure

Unvetted lead — read the papers

New hypotheses this failure suggests, each with a crucial experiment, a rival explanation of the original result, and the papers it rests on. Written by AI from paper titles and abstracts found on OpenAlex (and Europe PMC, for life and health sciences).

Related failures (1)

Matched on shared genes, mechanisms and ways of failing as well as wording. Each shows why it matched — treat these as leads rather than verdicts.

hivCirculating mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA released by dying cells would rise in the blood of people with HIV and could mark the cell death that drives chronic immune activation.
A new, accurate PCR test found no significant link between HIV disease status and mitochondrial DNA in plasma in acute or chronic infection.
Why it matched: same research area

Links in published research

Where this experiment's genes are known to matter outside its own research area, and the papers behind those links. Sources: Open Targets Platform and Europe PMC.