Autoimmune Disorders Unraveled: The Interplay Between Genetics and the Immune System.

Abstract

Autoimmune diseases are a group of disorders that have an abnormal immune response against the owner’s tissues. Another key feature in the pathogenesis of these diseases is an interaction between genetics and environment. Although the emergence of a number of recent genomic technologies has simplified establishing many susceptibility genes and loci that determine an inherited predisposition to autoimmunity, The goal of this review article is to explore the element of complexity that stems from correlation between genetics and immunity when focusing autoimmune diseases. It provides major genetic differences that define immune cell activity, mechanisms related to the regulation of self-tolerance and inflammatory reactions. Also, the review describes epigenetic modifications that could modify gene expression and behavior of immune systems causing disease development or progression. In this chapter, using GWAS as well as other types of genetic studies we address how these recent advances in genetics have improved our understanding of disease mechanisms and enabled the development of novel strategies for personalizing therapeutic interventions. This paper further explores the opportunities such genetic findings present in creating predictive models for disease risk assessment and as a prescription to personalized medicine. The understanding and control of autoimmunity will greatly benefit from unraveling the genetic complexities involved in these conditions.