cGAS drives noncanonical-inflammasome activation in age-related macular degeneration

Degeneration of the retinal pigment epithelium is a hallmark of geographic atrophy, a type of age-related macular degeneration. Kerur et al. show that this degeneration results from a multistep pathway in which mitochondrial dysfunction in RPE cells, triggered by accumulation of Alu RNA, leads to activation of the noncanonical inflammasome via a cGAS–STING–IRF3 signaling axis.