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Genome-Wide Association Study of Dermatomyositis Reveals Genetic Overlap With Other Autoimmune Disorders
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Genome-Wide Association Study of Dermatomyositis Reveals Genetic Overlap With Other Autoimmune Disorders

Wei Chen, Frederick W Miller, Robert G Cooper, Jiří Vencovský, Lisa G Rider, Katalin Danko, Lucy R Wedderburn, Ingrid E Lundberg, Lauren M Pachman, Ann M Reed, …
Arthritis and rheumatism, Vol.65(12), pp.3239-3247
12/2013
DOI: 10.1002/art.38137
PMCID: PMC3934004
PMID: 23983088
url
https://doi.org/10.1002/art.38137View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Objective To identify new genetic associations with juvenile and adult dermatomyositis (DM). Methods We performed a genome‐wide association study (GWAS) of adult and juvenile DM patients of European ancestry (n = 1,178) and controls (n = 4,724). To assess genetic overlap with other autoimmune disorders, we examined whether 141 single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) outside the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) locus, and previously associated with autoimmune diseases, predispose to DM. Results Compared to controls, patients with DM had a strong signal in the MHC region consisting of GWAS‐level significance (P < 5 × 10–8) at 80 genotyped SNPs. An analysis of 141 non‐MHC SNPs previously associated with autoimmune diseases showed that 3 SNPs linked with 3 genes were associated with DM, with a false discovery rate (FDR) of <0.05. These genes were phospholipase C–like 1 (PLCL1; rs6738825, FDR = 0.00089), B lymphoid tyrosine kinase (BLK; rs2736340, FDR = 0.0031), and chemokine (C‐C motif) ligand 21 (CCL21; rs951005, FDR = 0.0076). None of these genes was previously reported to be associated with DM. Conclusion Our findings confirm the MHC as the major genetic region associated with DM and indicate that DM shares non‐MHC genetic features with other autoimmune diseases, suggesting the presence of additional novel risk loci. This first identification of autoimmune disease genetic predispositions shared with DM may lead to enhanced understanding of pathogenesis and novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

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