Knockout of cGAS and STING Rescues Virus Infection of Plasmid DNA-Transfected Cells.

It is well known that plasmid DNA transfection, prior to virus infection, negatively affects infection efficiency. Here, we show that cytosolic plasmid DNA activates the cGAS/STING signaling pathway, which ultimately leads to the induction of an antiviral state of the cells. Using a transient one-plasmid clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas9 system, we generated cGAS/STING-knockout cells and show that these cells can be infected after plasmid DNA transfection as efficiently as nontransfected cells.