Gene/environment interaction and autoimmune disease

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1 Department of Dermatology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States
2 Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Bar-Ilan University, Safed, Israel
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.27939v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Dermatology, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Immunology, Environmental Impacts
Keywords
Autoimmune disease, Inflammatory bowel diseases, Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative colitis, Microbiome, Microbiota, Environmental factors, Psoriasis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Cigarette smoking
Copyright
© 2019 Harris et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Harris TA, Bel S. 2019. Gene/environment interaction and autoimmune disease. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27939v1

Abstract

Autoimmune diseases are complex illnesses in which the body’s immune system attacks its own healthy tissues. These diseases, which can be fatal, gravely impact the quality of life of those afflicted by them with no cure currently available. The exact etiology of autoimmune diseases is not completely clear. Biomedical research has revealed that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the development and progression of these diseases. Nevertheless, genetic and environmental factors alone cannot explain a large proportion of cases, leading to the possibility that the two factors interact in driving disease onset. Understanding how genetic and environmental factor influence host physiology in a manner that leads to the development of autoimmune diseases can reveal the mechanisms by which these diseases manifest, and bring us closer to finding a cure for them. In this chapter, we will review the current research of genetic/environmental interactions that contribute to development of autoimmune diseases, with an emphasis on interactions between the host and the multitudes of microbes that inhabit it, the microbiota.

Author Comment

This review is part of the volume "Beyond our Genes: Pathophysiology of Gene and Environment Interaction and Epigenetic Inheritance" by Springer Nature