People of non-European descent at increased genetic risk of lupus, says study

A new study carried out by the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College London suggests that people of non-European descent are genetically predisposed to be more likely to develop lupus.

The research team looked at genetic data gathered from 22,670 Europeans, 13,174 Chinese people and additional data from south Asian, east Asian and African populations, spanning 1,000 genomes in today.

The results of the study, which was published in Nature Genetics, indicated that non-European populations have a higher number of the gene variants known as alleles that are thought to contribute to the risk of developing lupus, particularly among the Chinese population. This confirms that the condition’s increased prevalence in non-Europeans has a genetic basis.

The researcher report that further analysis of the data also uncovered 10 additional risk alleles associated with lupus, bringing the total of known lupus-related alleles to 88. They say, that building on these findings, it may be possible in the future to develop tests which predict if an individual is more likely to develop lupus which could facilitate the creation of personalised treatments for the condition. However, they add that environmental factors also play a major role in the onset of lupus and further research in this area is just as important.

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