Research News Alert: SRF-funded researcher Dr. Howard Chang and his collaborators have made a breakthrough discovery that sheds light on why women are more likely than men to develop certain autoimmune diseases, like lupus and scleroderma. The Scleroderma Research Foundation (SRF) is the primary sponsor of this study, a major milestone in the organization’s near decade-long concentrated effort to understand female-biased autoimmunity, a commitment that has been spearheaded by Dr. Chang and his team.
Women account for nearly 80% of all cases of autoimmune disease, a category that includes scleroderma, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Sjogren’s syndrome. In this study published in the journal Cell, Dr. Chang, an investigator at Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and his collaborators propose an explanation for the higher prevalence of autoimmune diseases in women compared to men.
They attribute it to the presence of a molecule called Xist that is responsible for silencing one X chromosome in every female cell. Xist and its associated proteins may sometimes be released from damaged cells and may, in certain women, activate the immune system, leading to autoimmune disease. Because only women make the molecule called Xist, this process does not happen in males.
Although Xist is not likely the sole cause of autoimmunity, the findings suggest the potential for developing new treatments targeting the specific immune activation it can provoke instead of using broadly immunosuppressive drugs.
Please see the press regarding this groundbreaking study below.
The SRF extends its heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Chang, first author Dr. Diana Dou, and SRF-funded collaborators Dr. Ami Shah (Johns Hopkins), Drs. Lorinda Chung and David Fiorentino (Stanford), as well as additional research team members at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm), the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, JHU, and Stanford.
