Can taurine metabolism increase the incidence of lupus? Renji's research says...

Renji Hospital published new results of metabolic regulation of autoimmune diseases online.01 recently, the team of Rheumatology Research Institute of Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University Medical College has made innovative progress in metabolic regulation of lupus disease, and published the international top rheumatology journal Arthritis & amp; Rheumatology, impact factor 9.586) published online the latest research results of taurine metabolism promoting the progress of lupus by promoting the function of plasmacytoid dendritic cells.studies have found that the level of taurine in peripheral serum of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is significantly increased, and the interaction between taurine and SLE susceptible genes is involved in the occurrence of disease, suggesting that the interaction between metabolic abnormalities and genetic variation is an important cause of autoimmune diseases.02sle is an autoimmune disease involving multiple organs with complex causes.it is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the pathogenesis of SLE in order to find new therapeutic targets and methods.previous studies have shown that the abnormal activation of IFN-I pathway plays an important role in the pathogenesis of SLE.metabolic abnormalities are one of the important causes of immune abnormalities, but the metabolic regulation of IFN-I production in SLE is still unclear.the purpose of this study was to define the amino acid metabolism characteristics in SLE and explore the function of disease-related metabolites in controlling plasma cell like dendritic cell (PDC) - mediated IFN-I production and SLE progression.in this study, metabonomics was used to compare the differences of metabolites in sera from healthy control group, SLE patients and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. It was found that taurine level in peripheral serum of SLE patients was significantly increased (Fig. 1).Figure 1: the serum metabonomics analysis by mass spectrometry (MS) showed that the level of taurine in the peripheral serum of SLE patients was significantly increased. Further research confirmed that taurine can promote the activation of plasma cell like dendritic cells, which is the main production cell of IFN-I, and lead to the increase of autoantibodies and proteinuria of the organism, so as to develop more severe nephritis and promote lupus model The development of mouse diseases (Fig. 2).Figure 2: taurine supplementation aggravates the progression of lupus mice model. Studies have shown that taurine can inhibit the expression of Ncf1 gene, reduce ROS level of plasma cell like dendritic cells, lead to the excessive activation of TLR signaling pathway, promote the production of IFN-I, and accelerate the progress of lupus disease.previous studies by the team have confirmed that Ncf1 is a susceptible gene for multiple autoimmune diseases such as lupus (NAT Genet. 2017; 49 (3): 433-437.).therefore, this study further elucidates the function of Ncf1 gene and the regulation of metabolism on its expression.this study suggests that the interaction between metabolic abnormalities and genetic variation is an important cause of autoimmune diseases.in addition, as taurine metabolism is involved in the development of SLE, it may have therapeutic potential to target inhibition of taurine or restriction of taurine diet intake for SLE.03 in recent years, Zhou Haibo, associate researcher of autoimmune disease center of Renji Hospital, has focused on the differentiation and regulation of dendritic cells and its function in the field of autoimmune diseases. He has made a series of achievements in the regulation of lupus susceptible genes and metabolism on dendritic cells.Professor Zhou Haibo, Professor Shen Nan and Professor Ye Zhizhong are the corresponding authors of the paper, Li Jun, Ding Huihua, Meng Yao and Li Guanhua of Renji Hospital are the co first authors, and Renji Hospital is the first completion unit. the research was supported by NSFC and other projects. References: