Japanese research team publishes research paper in ‘Cell’
[의학신문·일간보사=정우용 기자] It has been found that different immune cells act through different mechanisms in the onset and exacerbation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an intractable autoimmune disease.
A research team from the Japan Institute of Physics and Chemistry and the University of Tokyo announced that they are paying attention to the results of helping to identify the pathogenesis of SLE and develop treatments. The research results were recently published on the Internet version of the American life science journal ‘Cell’.
The research team collected and investigated a total of 6386 samples of 27 types of immune cells from the blood of 136 patients with various symptoms and 89 healthy patients to investigate the gene expression level on the largest scale in the past and to investigate the condition in detail.
As for the type of gene group that is expressed preferentially through analysis, the expression level is significantly different between the patient in remission and the healthy person, and the expression level of the gene group that is ultimately involved in the onset is different, and the expression level is different between the patient and the patient in the remission state, which is ultimately involved in the exacerbation. It was confirmed that there were two gene groups.
As a result of examining the two types in 27 types of immune cells, an average of regarding 2,000 genes with different expression levels might be found per cell type. When the two types were compared, the genes expressed in many cells were significantly different. In this regard, it was confirmed that the onset and the exacerbation were acting by different mechanisms. It was also suggested that the immune cells that are activated by different organs in which symptoms are expressed are different.
The effects of existing treatments were also investigated, and in the patients that were effective, the gene group suppressed by the treatment and the gene group involved in exacerbation were almost identical. It can be seen that the therapeutic agent has efficacy as it suppresses the gene group involved in exacerbation.
The research team mainly compared different patients this time, but emphasized that it is necessary to predict the prognosis and recurrence by tracking the gene expression level of the same patient in the future.
