STING1 and viral encephalitis: Recent studies implicate the cGAS-STING pathway in neuroinflammation (Paul et al., 2021), where cytosolic DNA sensing triggers Cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP) synthesis, STING activation, and IFN-I induction—observed in Aβ-mediated microglial activation in AD (Govindarajulu et al., 2023), antiviral responses in viral encephalitis (Losarwar et al., 2025), and STING knockout suppressing astrocyte proliferation (Zhang et al., 2020).