Is Likely a Susceptibility Gene for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus for Chinese Populations.

BACKGROUND

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disease with strong genetic disposition with more than 100 susceptibility genes identified until now. However, our knowledge on SLE genetic background is still limited. The present study was aimed at evaluating the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in , a TGF- signaling activator, with SLE susceptibility in Chinese populations.

METHODS

A total of 2801 individuals (490 cases and 493 controls from GWAS cohort and 1003 cases and 815 controls from our cohort) were enrolled, and SNPs located 10 kb up- and downstream of (chr6:35182190-35218609) were included in the genetic association study. Multiple layers of bioinformatics were conducted, and the levels of expression were confirmed.

RESULTS

Of the 31 SNPs in tested, 24 SNPs were significantly associated with SLE at ≤ 0.05. The top locus was rs1888822 with = 8.74∗10 in the discovery cohort and was confirmed by the replication cohort with = 0.012. Additionally, the levels of mRNA expression were significantly lower in patients with SLE comparing with healthy controls ( = 4.28∗10). Further expression data from ArrayExpress showed that the expression of was also lower in CD3 T cells and B cells from patients with SLE.

CONCLUSIONS

Our research revealed that variants in , which encode SCUBE3 as a TGF- signaling activator, can be considered as a new genetic susceptibility factor for systemic lupus erythematosus. And the reduced mRNA expression of was first reported in patients with SLE.