- Lee, Koon-Guan;
- Kim, Susana Soo-Yeon;
- Kui, Lin;
- Voon, Dominic Chih-Cheng;
- Mauduit, Marjorie;
- Bist, Pradeep;
- Bi, Xuezhi;
- Pereira, Natasha Ann;
- Liu, Chengcheng;
- Sukumaran, Bindu;
- Rénia, Laurent;
- Ito, Yoshiaki;
- Lam, Kong-Peng
The innate immune system senses cytosolic dsDNA and bacterial cyclic dinucleotides and initiates signaling via the adaptor STING to induce type 1 interferon (IFN) response. We demonstrate here that BTK-deficient cells have impaired IFN-β production and TBK1/IRF3 activation when stimulated with agonists or infected with pathogens that activate STING signaling. BTK interacts with STING and DDX41 helicase. The kinase and SH3/SH2 interaction domains of BTK bind, respectively, the DEAD-box domain of DDX41 and transmembrane region of STING. BTK phosphorylates DDX41, and its kinase activities are critical for STING-mediated IFN-β production. We show that Tyr364 and Tyr414 of DDX41 are critical for its recognition of AT-rich DNA and binding to STING, and tandem mass spectrometry identifies Tyr414 as the BTK phosphorylation site. Modeling studies further indicate that phospho-Tyr414 strengthens DDX41's interaction with STING. Hence, BTK plays a critical role in the activation of DDX41 helicase and STING signaling.