Six more genes linked with autoimmune disease lupus

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Investigators reported on Sunday they had identified six more gene regions associated with the severest form of lupus, a complex autoimmune disease that mainly strikes women.

Lupus causes human antibodies -- the frontline troops in the defence system -- to attack the body's tissues, resulting in inflammation that is often mild but in extreme cases can be life-threatening.

The variants of half a dozen genes are described in four studies published in Britain's Nature Genetics and the New England Journal of Medicine, headquartered in the United States.

Separately or together, the six play a part in the molecular pathway of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a chronic form of lupus that can affect skin, lungs, blood vessels, the brain and nervous...