MAVS in Cancer Therapy: The New STING?

The DNA sensing signaling pathway mediated by cGAS-STING has achieved significant progress in cancer therapy. However, the role of the RNA sensing signaling pathway mediated by RLRs-MAVS in cancer has been relatively underexplored. In this review, we first elaborate on the structural basis, activation, and regulatory mechanisms of MAVS, and examine its functional interplay with other innate immune pathways. We then comprehensively review its functions in cancer. Finally, we summarize its potential clinical applications, existing challenges, and proposed solutions. Moreover, we compare MAVS with STING across these three dimensions and find that they exhibit similarities in signaling pathways, perform analogous functions in cancer, and share comparable potential for clinical applications. Therefore, we propose that MAVS could emerge as the next STING in cancer therapy.