Interestingly, in addition to the above-described canonical initiation of autophagy, immune effectors such as the cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) and the stimulator of interferon response cGAMP interactor 1 (STING1) are known to induce a non-canonical (ULK1- and BECN1-independent) autophagic process as a defense mechanism in response to viral infections (45, 46). This evidence concerns the gene STING1 and viral infectious disease.