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Crohn's, eczema, and psoriasis have the same genetic cause, reveals new study (2016-01-22)

For the first time scientists have identified ten new genetic variants that cause eczema and which biological signals - communication pathways between cells - these genes affect. They have also examined what effect these biological signals have on other diseases.

The new research shows that many of the genetic defects that lead to development of eczema are also present in people who develop autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, and the inflammatory bowel disease Chron’s.
In an autoimmune disease like psoriasis, the skin can become hypersensitive, and react to either bacteria or viruses that are naturally present in the skin.
This is due to a signalling pathway that prevents the immune system from functioning as it should. In the new study, this very same signalling pathway was affected by the genetic variants identified in patients with eczema.

Genetic association studies have identified 21 loci associated with atopic dermatitis risk predominantly in populations of European ancestry.

To identify further susceptibility loci for this common, complex skin disease, researchers performed a meta-analysis of >15 million genetic variants in 21,399 cases and 95,464 controls from populations of European, African, Japanese and Latino ancestry, followed by replication in 32,059 cases and 228,628 controls from 18 studies.

Researchers identified ten new risk loci, bringing the total number of known atopic dermatitis risk loci to 31 (with new secondary signals at four of these loci).

Notably, the new loci include candidate genes with roles in the regulation of innate host defenses and T cell function, underscoring the important contribution of (auto)immune mechanisms to atopic dermatitis pathogenesis.

For more information
Nature genetics
Multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of 21,000 cases and 95,000 controls identifies new risk loci for atopic dermatitis
Nature Genetics 47, 1449–1456 (2015)
doi:10.1038/ng.3424
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