Cis-eQTLs regulate reduced LST1 gene and NCR3 gene expression and contribute to increased autoimmune disease risk

Abstract

In PNAS, Yau et al. (1) identify a conserved 33-kb haplotype Ltab-Ncr3 across five genes, lymphotoxin-α ( Lta ), Tnf , lymphotoxin-β ( Ltb ), leukocyte-specific transcript 1 ( Lst1 ), and natural cytotoxicity-triggering receptor 3 ( Ncr3 ) in the MHC-III region in wild rats. The higher Ltb and Ncr3 expression, the lower Lst1 expression, and the expression of a shorter splice variant of Lst1 were associated with reduced arthritis severity in rats (1). Yau et al. (1) further analyzed the expression levels of LTB , LST1 , and NCR3 using whole-blood samples from 32 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 92 healthy controls (1). They identify significantly increased expression of these three genes in RA cases (1). The mild RA cases also showed lower expression of LST1 and higher expression of … [↵][1]1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: hjw{at}tmu.edu.cn or qhjiang{at}hit.edu.cn. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1