Finding the Common Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Three Autoimmune Diseases and Exploring Their Bio-Function by Using a Reporter Assay

In clinical practice, it is found that autoimmune thyroid disease often additionally occurs with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In addition, several studies showed that eye-specific autoimmune diseases may have a strong relationship with systemic autoimmune diseases. We focused on Graves’ disease (GD) with ocular conditions, also known as Graves’ ophthalmopathy (GO), trying to find out the potential genetic background related to GO, RA, and SLE. There were 40 GO cases and 40 healthy controls enrolled in this study. The association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the co-stimulatory molecule genes and GO was analyzed using a chi-square test. It showed that rs11571315, rs733618, rs4553808, rs11571316, rs16840252, and rs11571319 of CTLA4, rs3181098 of CD28, rs36084323 and rs10204525 of PDCD1, and rs11889352 and rs4675379 of ICOS were significantly associated with GO based on genotype analysis and/or allele analysis (p < 0.05). After summarizing the GO data and the previously published SLE and RA data, it was found that rs11571315, rs733618, rs4553808, rs16840252, rs11571319, and rs36084323 were shared in these three diseases. Furthermore, the bio-function was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay. It was shown that rs733618 T > C and rs4553808 A > G significantly decreased the transcriptional activity (both p < 0.001). This study is the first to confirm that these three diseases share genetically predisposing factors, and our results support the proposal that rs733618 T > C and rs4553808 A > G have bio-functional effects on the transcriptional activity of the CTLA4 gene.