CGAS and neurodegenerative disease: Pathological features of neurodegenerative diseases include inflammation, protein aggregation, defective proteostasis, defects in DNA and RNA homeostasis, altered energy metabolism, synaptic and neuronal network dysfunction, cytoskeletal abnormalities, and neuronal cell death, all of which can influence the release of self-DNA into the cytoplasm and lead to the activation of cGAS under sterile conditions.