When DNA is present in the cytosol, resulting from viral infection or following its (aberrant) release from the nucleus or mitochondria, this leads to immune and inflammatory responses by activating cytosolic DNA-sensing pathways such as cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS)/stimulator of interferon genes (STING; Riley et al., 2018) and AIM2 (absent in melanoma 2; Dang et al., 2017). Here, CGAS is linked to viral infectious disease.