Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus) is a complex, multi-organ, clinically heterogeneous, potentially fatal autoimmune disease with substantial genetic and environmental components. In U.S., SLE affects ~2 million people, mostly women (~90%), and prevalence is >3-5 times higher in individuals of African, Asian and Hispanic ancestries compared to European ancestry. Despite its public health importance, SLE pathogenesis is not well understood. Infection is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, accounting for >25% of deaths in SLE patients. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide are key for defense against invading microbial pathogens, and are produced by the multi-protein NADPH- oxidase (NADPHO) system during phagocytosis. This multi-protein complex is encoded by 7 essential genes: NCF1, NCF2, NCF4, CYBA,CYBB, Rac1 or Rac2. Although NADPHO is likely to be important in SLE pathophysiology, thus far, none of the 7 genome-wide association studies detected SLE association. Using large multi-ethnic cohorts (N > 17,000 from European-Americans (EA), African-Americans (AA), Hispanics (HS), and Koreans (KR)), we have identified at least 7 independent and potentially functional SLE-susceptibility variants (10-44

R21AI103399

2013-04-15

2016-03-31