STING1 and infection: Various studies indicated that cGas-/- and Mita-/- knockout mice produce much lower levels of type I IFNs and other cytokines after DNA virus infection and are highly susceptible to infection with DNA viruses, such as herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) and vaccinia virus (VACV), suggesting that the cGAS-MITA/STING pathway is critically important for the innate immune response to DNA viruses [44, 68].