Activating the Nucleic Acid-Sensing Machinery for Anticancer Immunity.

Nucleic acid sensing pathways have likely evolved as part of a broad pathogen sensing strategy intended to discriminate infectious agents and initiate appropriate innate and adaptive controls. However, in the absence of infectious agents, nucleic acid sensing pathways have been shown to play positive and negative roles in regulating tumorigenesis, tumor progression and metastatic spread. Understanding the normal biology behind these pathways and how they are regulated in malignant cells and in the tumor immune environment can help us devise strategies to exploit nucleic acid sensing to manipulate anti-cancer immunity.