A DV E RT I S E M E N T FE AT U R E
Unravelling
autoimmune
diseases
Autoimmune diseases are
multidimensional puzzles that must be
SOLVED IN DIFFERENT WAYS FOR MANY
INDIVIDUALS. They also vary between
populations.
One of the biggest gaps in
medical genomics lies between
the well-populated genomic
databases of European
populations, and the relative
lack of data for most other
groups. Researchers at Anhui
Medical University have made
an enormous contribution
to this problem by creating
large genomic datasets for the
Han Chinese population. The
databases have confirmed
known associations, revealed
new associations that are unique
to Han Chinese people, and
demonstrated their significance
as a resource for the future
research.
The major histocompatibility
complex (MHC), a group of
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Rashes are a symptom of systemic lupus erythematosus.
of the same underlying variations
closely linked genes that code
for proteins on the surface of
the cell, is known to be one of
the most complicated regions
of the human genome. More
than 200 connections have been
documented between these
genes and autoimmune diseases,
infectious diseases, inflammatory
diseases, and other conditions.
But for all the ways MHC is
implicated in these conditions,
there has been little research that
further uncovered the genetic
variants that affect health.
In 2016, Xuejun Zhang
and Liangdan Sun, at AHMU,
sequenced the MHC region of
20,635 Han Chinese individuals,
almost half of whom had
psoriasis. They confirmed many
that are associated with the
condition in Europeans cohorts,
and identified new susceptibility
loci in Han Chinese people
that hadn’t been demonstrated
before.
Systemic lupus
erythematosus (SLE) affects up
to 70 people of every 100,000
in most populations, but some
forms of lupus, such as lupus
nephritis, are more prevalent
in Han Chinese. In a similarly
ambitious effort led by Zhang,
Sun, and Dongqing Ye, the
researchers from AHMU ran
a genome wide association
study of SLE and identified
nine new loci in the genome
that elevated risk, as well as
confirming another seven that
had been previously reported.
Lupus is known to be extremely
complicated clinically, and the
work of Zhang and colleagues
suggests that this may be
partly due to the fact that the
same condition may arise from
different genetic causes in
different populations.
Other teams from AHMU,
led by Wei Wei, examined
rheumatoid arthritis, a condition
in which joints swell and
deteriorate. There are numerous
drugs for its treatment, but
adverse reactions are common.
The researchers’ work on
Joint swelling caused by rheumatoid arthritis.
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understanding pathogenesis,
allowed them to identify a
compound that more directly
treated inflammation in
rheumatoid arthritis patients and
in rats.
Another group, led by Jun
Li, found a new signalling axis,
AMPK-NFE2L2-UQCRC2, in the
regulation of mitophagy levels in
alcoholic liver disease. Li’s team
also examined the regulation
of noncoding RNAs on liver
diseases, and found that hepatic
mtDNA-TLR9-microRNA-223
forms a negative feedback
loop to limit neutrophil over-
activation and acetaminophen
hepatotoxicity. They also
investigated the expression
profile, regulatory function and
mechanism of circular RNAs
in liver fibrosis, showing that
circFBXW4 and circPSD3 may
serve as potential biomarkers
for liver fibrosis therapy. Similar
work by Xiongwen Lv identified a
compound that, in mice, helped
inhibit the development of the
type of liver fibrosis caused by
alcoholism.
Phone: +86-0551-65161056
Email: wanghua@ahmu.edu.cn
Website: www.ahmu.edu.cn
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