Results Strong evidence for association was seen for both STAT4 (strongest effect rs7574865 OR 1.24 95%CI 1.1–1.4, ptrend = 0.0008) and TRAF1/C5 (strongest effect rs2900180 OR 1.23 95%CI 1.1–1.38, ptrend = 0.0004). The 6q23 region showed weak evidence for association with JIA (rs6920220 OR 1. 17 95% CI 1.01–1.36, ptrend = 0.03). In all cases the associated allele was the same as for RA and the ...

T follicular helper (Tfh) cells help development of antibody responses via interleukin-21 (IL-21). Here we show that activated human dendritic cells (DCs) induced naive CD4(+) T cells to become IL-21-producing Tfh-like cells through IL-12. CD4(+) T cells primed with IL-12 induced B cells to produce immunoglobulins in a fashion dependent on IL-21 and inducible costimulator (ICOS), thus sharing f...

OBJECTIVE Candidate gene and genome-wide association studies have identified several disease susceptibility loci in lupus patients. These studies have largely been performed in lupus patients who are Asian or of European ancestry. This study was undertaken to examine whether some of these same susceptibility loci increase lupus risk in African American individuals. METHODS Single-nucleotide p...

Parkinson disease (PD) progresses relentlessly and affects approximately 4% of the population aged over 80 years old. It is difficult to diagnose in its early stages. The purpose of our study is to identify molecular biomarkers for PD initiation using a computational bioinformatics analysis of gene expression. We downloaded the gene expression profile of PD from Gene Expression Omnibus and iden...

PTP1B and TC-PTP are highly related protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) that regulate the JAK/STAT signaling cascade essential for cytokine-receptor activation in immune cells. Here, we describe a novel immunotherapy approach whereby monocyte-derived dendritic cell (moDC) function is enhanced by modulating the enzymatic activities of PTP1B and TC-PTP. To downregulate or delete the activity/exp...