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Rheumatoid arthritis is a common autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation of the synovial membrane of diarthrodial joints, which often leads to joint damage and disability. There are known associations between major histocompatibility complex class II alleles and susceptibility to rheumatoid arthritis and its severity in Caucasians. African Americans, an admixed population in the United States, has been underrepresented in genetic studies of the susceptibility and severity of rheumatoid arthritis. With the advent of biologic agents, which target specific molecules of the immune system (e.g., tumor necrosis factor, interleukin-1), biologic markers of treatment response in Caucasians and in African Americans would be clinically useful.

IL-35 is a relatively new cytokine that emerges as an important immunomodulator. IL-35 belongs to IL-12 cytokine family that includes IL-12, IL-23, IL-27, and IL-35. These cytokines are heterodimers that share subunits and their receptors also share subunits. Whereas IL-12 and IL-23 are clearly proinflammatory cytokines, the role of IL-35 is less clear. In mice, IL-35 appears to be anti-inflammatory and to protect from autoimmune inflammatory diseases. IL-35 induces the expansion of a subset of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and Bregs and mediates their suppressive function and inhibits Th17 cells. It also upregulates osteoprotegerin and suppresses RANKL, thus inhibiting bone resorption. In autoimmune rheumatic diseases, findings are conflicting, although in systemic lupus erythematosus, there is reduced function of IL-35. In psoriatic arthritis, a disease characterized by bone erosion and bone formation in peripheral joints and bone formation in spinal joints, serum levels of IL-35 were found increased in one study. Further data are required to define the exact role of IL-35 in human autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

Mucosal application of vaccines with an appropriate adjuvant can induce immune responses at both systemic and mucosal sites, and therefore may prevent not only infectious disease, but also colonization at mucosal surfaces. Intranasal is more effective than intragastric immunization at generating earlier and stronger mucosal immune responses. Nasal lymphoid tissue (NALT) and its local draining lymph nodes may retain long-term immune memory. IgA isotype switching, and the differentiation and maturation of IgA antibody-secreting cells (ASC) may occur before these cells migrate out of NALT, whereas IgG ASC responses require passage of the cells through draining lymph nodes of the NALT. Knowledge of whether immune memory cells can recirculate to and reside in the inductive sites other than their origin after encountering antigen will be helpful for understanding the compartmentalization of the common mucosal immune system as well as for determining the best route for delivering a mucosal vaccine against a particular pathogen.

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins are critical mediators of cytokine signaling. Among the seven STAT proteins, STAT6 is activated by IL-4 and IL-13 and plays a predominant role in the immune system. However, there is increasing evidence that STAT6 may function in other tissues and organ systems. IL-4, IL-13, and STAT6 promote humoral immunity, clearance of helminthic parasites as well as the pathogenesis of allergic disorders like asthma, food allergies, and atopic dermatitis. In this review, we will describe our current understanding of the biological functions of STAT6 and summarize recent advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms by which STAT6 regulates transcription.

Neutrophil activation is anessential event in inflammatory responses. How cells coordinate, integrate, manage, and distribute information on physiologically-relevant time scales are not well understood. Although neutrophil oscillators have been known for many years, their biological roles have not been identified. We suggest that intracellular oscillators (such as NAD(P)H, pH, calcium, and so on) account for functional oscillations (e.g., superoxide and NO production, cytolytic marker release, pericellular proteolysis, and actin assembly). In addition to these well-known temporal oscillations, we have recently discovered self-organized traveling chemical waves in neutrophils; these waves respond to extracellular signals and have distinct origins that coincide with a cell's uropod, lamellipodium, or adherence site. The fundamental physico-chemical features of cell chemistry will have an increasing role in our understanding of leukocyte function.

Several novel susceptibility genes for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and other nephropathy have been identified in recent genome-wide association studies. Membranous nephropathy is the most common diagnosis in adults with the nephrotic syndrome, and both idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) and lupus nephritis (LN) are autoimmune diseases of the kidney; they may share common disease mechanisms that overlap with genetic susceptibility. Therefore, we sought to identify genetic variants associated with IMN in SLE/LN. The PLA2R1 single-nucleotide polymorphisms rs4664308, rs3828323, rs3792189, and rs3792192 were genotyped in a cohort of 1247 SLE patients and 1174 healthy controls, using the Sequenom MassArray system method. PLA2R1 displayed a nominally significantly genetic association with SLE [for rs4664308, P = 0.02, odds ratio (OR) 1.16, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.02–1.31; for rs3792192, P = 7.9 × 10−3, OR 1.18, 95 % CI 1.05–1.34] and LN (for rs4664308, P = 0.04). The frequencies of genotypes of rs3792189 and rs3828323 were significantly different between the SLE patients and controls (all P < 0.05), and the haplotype (AA) formed by rs3792189 and rs3792192 was associated with SLE (P = 0.019). This was the first study to reveal that PLA2R1 polymorphisms were associated with SLE/LN patients, indicating that PLA2R1 might be a susceptibility gene for SLE/LN in a Chinese Han population.

New insights into the underlying mechanisms for the development of autoimmune diseases in humans and various animal models continue to increase with our understanding of factors that drive polarization of T helper (Th) responses and tolerance. This information has led to the development of new treatment strategies, including oral tolerance clinical trials and the use of altered peptide ligands in animal models. These approaches have shown some promise and provided additional insight into the disease processes. The use of gene therapy in many disease states continues to increase. We are starting to see the application of gene therapy in chronic diseases in humans. Gene therapy has been used in several animal models of autoimmune disease with promising preliminary results. In this article, an overview will be provided for the use of gene therapy in autoimmune disease.