RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a genetically complex rheumatic disease characterized by heterogeneous clinical manifestations of unknown etiology. Recent studies have suggested the existence of a genetic basis for SLE heterogeneity. The objective of the present study was to identify new genetic variation associated with the clinically relevant phenotypes in SLE. METHODS: A two-stage pathway-based approach was used to identify the genetic variation associated with the main clinical phenotypes in SLE. In the discovery stage, 482 SLE patients were genotyped using Illumina Human Quad610 microarrays. Association between 798 reference genetic pathways from the Molecular Signatures Database and 11 SLE phenotypes was tested using the set-based method implemented in PLINK software. Pathways significantly associated after multiple test correction were subsequently tested for replication in an independent cohort of 425 SLE patients. Using an in silico approach, we analyzed the functional effects of common SLE therapies on the replicated genetic pathways. The association of known SLE risk variants with the development of the clinical phenotypes was also analyzed. RESULTS: In the discovery stage, we found a significant association between the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway and oral ulceration (P value for false discovery rate (P FDR) < 0.05), and between the negative regulation signaling pathway of retinoic acid inducible gene-I/melanoma differentiation associated gene 5 and the production of antinuclear antibodies (P FDR < 0.05). In the replication stage, we validated the association between the VEGF pathway and oral ulceration. Therapies commonly used to treat mucocutaneous phenotypes in SLE were found to strongly influence VEGF pathway gene expression (P = 4.60e-4 to 5.38e-14). Analysis of known SLE risk loci identified a strong association between PTPN22 and the risk of hematologic disorder and with the development of antinuclear antibodies. CONCLUSIONS: The present study has identified VEGF genetic pathway association with the risk of oral ulceration in SLE. New therapies targeting the VEGF pathway could be more effective in reducing the severity of this phenotype. These findings represent a first step towards the understanding of the genetic basis of phenotype heterogeneity in SLE.
Assuntos
Lúpus Eritematoso Sistêmico/genética , Lúpus Eritematoso Sistêmico/patologia , Úlceras Orais/genética , Fator A de Crescimento do Endotélio Vascular/genética , Adulto , Feminino , Predisposição Genética para Doença/genética , Variação Genética , Estudo de Associação Genômica Ampla , Genótipo , Humanos , Lúpus Eritematoso Sistêmico/complicações , Masculino , FenótipoRESUMO
We studied dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV, CD26) expression in different T helper cells and serum soluble DPP-IV/sCD26 levels in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, correlated these with disease activity score (DAS), and examined how they were affected by different therapies, conventional or biological (anti-TNF, anti-CD20 and anti-IL6R or Ig-CTLA4). The percentage of CD4+CD45R0+CD26- cells was greatly reduced in patients (up to 50%) when compared with healthy subjects. Three other subsets of CD4 cells, including a CD26high Th1-associated population, changed variably with therapies. Data from these subsets (frequency and staining density) significantly correlated with DAS28 or DAS28 components but different in each group of patients undergoing the different therapies. Th17 and Th22 subsets were implicated in RA as independent CCR4+ and CCR4- populations each, with distinct CD26 expression, and were targeted with varying efficiency by each therapy. Serum DPP-IV activity rather than sCD26 levels was lower in RA patients compared to healthy donors. DPP-IV and sCD26 serum levels were found related to specific T cell subsets but not to disease activity. We conclude that, according to their CD26 expression, different cell subsets could serve to monitor RA course, and an uncharacterized T helper CD26- subset, not targeted by therapies, should be monitored for early diagnosis.
Assuntos
Artrite Reumatoide/sangue , Artrite Reumatoide/fisiopatologia , Dipeptidil Peptidase 4/sangue , Dipeptidil Peptidase 4/genética , Regulação da Expressão Gênica , Linfócitos T Auxiliares-Indutores/metabolismo , Adulto , Antirreumáticos/uso terapêutico , Artrite Reumatoide/tratamento farmacológico , Artrite Reumatoide/genética , Linfócitos T CD4-Positivos/citologia , Linfócitos T CD4-Positivos/imunologia , Linfócitos T CD4-Positivos/metabolismo , Demografia , Dipeptidil Peptidase 4/metabolismo , Feminino , Humanos , Antígenos Comuns de Leucócito/metabolismo , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Índice de Gravidade de Doença , Subpopulações de Linfócitos T/citologia , Subpopulações de Linfócitos T/metabolismo , Linfócitos T Auxiliares-Indutores/citologia , Linfócitos T Auxiliares-Indutores/imunologia , Células Th17/citologia , Células Th17/imunologiaRESUMO
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