Volume 39, Issue 8 e70401
RESEARCH ARTICLE

STAG2 Alleviates Anxiety Disorder via Inhibiting cGAS-STING Pathway

Fan Yang

Corresponding Author

Fan Yang

Guangdong Mental Health Center, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital (Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences), Southern Medical University, Guangzhou City, China

Correspondence: Fan Yang ([email protected])

Contribution: Conceptualization, ​Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Formal analysis

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Tianyi Zhai

Tianyi Zhai

Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou City, China

Contribution: Conceptualization, ​Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Formal analysis

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Xiaojie Huang

Xiaojie Huang

Guangdong Mental Health Center, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital (Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences), Southern Medical University, Guangzhou City, China

Contribution: Methodology, Writing - review & editing

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First published: 28 July 2025

Fan Yang and Tianyi Zhai are Co-first authors.

ABSTRACT

Anxiety is one of the most common mental disorders. We aim to find novel biomarkers to explore its potential mechanism in anxiety disorders. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened out from GSE29014 and GSE100084 datasets. Protein-protein interaction network, enrichment analysis, and principal component analysis were employed to determine hub genes. The anxiety model was constructed by restraint stress. Behavioral tests, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, hematoxylin-eosin, and Nissl staining were applied to evaluate the anxiety model. The potential mechanisms were investigated by corticosterone (CORT)-induced PC12 cells as an in vitro model. Proteins and mRNA expression levels were measured by western blot and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Cell counting kit, 5-Ethynyl-2’-deoxyuridine, and flow cytometry assays were employed to measure proliferation and apoptosis. PTPRC, SMC3, STAG2, FLT3, SYNE1, TERF2IP, NIPBL, ZFP451, MLLT3, and JAK1 were identified as hub genes with high prediction value for anxiety. Hippocampal neurons were damaged with decreased 5-hydroxytryptamine, γ-amino butyric acid, and neuropeptide Y, as well as increased corticotrophin releasing factor and cholecystokinin in anxiety model. PTPRC, SMC3, STAG2, SYNE1, NIPBL, and ZFP451 were downregulated in anxiety mice. STAG2 was selected as the research target. In CORT-induced PC12 cells, STAG2 overexpression promoted cell proliferation, while inhibiting apoptosis and the expression of proteins in cGAS-STING pathway. STAG2 is a potential biomarker of anxiety that exerts a neuroprotective effect on CORT-induced PC12 cells via suppressing cGAS-STING pathway.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available by contacting the corresponding author.

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