A recent study published in the journal ‘Cell’ has revealed that women have at least four times higher risk of autoimmune diseases than men due to the presence of X chromosome. This research has caused quite a stir in the scientific community since its publication in the February 1 issue of Cell.
Autoimmune diseases have been a topic of discussion lately. The human body’s immune system often starts attacking its cells mistakenly, resulting in different diseases. Autoimmune diseases, affect mostly women, are the third most prevalent disease category, trailing only cancer and heart disease. The researchers have discovered that the reason behind the higher risk of autoimmune diseases in women is due to how the female body responds to the X chromosome.
The human body has two sex-determining chromosomes: X and Y. Women have two X chromosomes, while men have one X and one Y chromosome. The X chromosome is much larger than the Y chromosome and contains many genes that acts as a code for proteins. Generally, when there are two X chromosomes, one is inactive, and the other is responsible for producing proteins. When both are active, a large amount of protein can be produced, which can cause the cells to go haywire. Thus, one X chromosome in every female cell becomes inactive from the embryonic stage.
RNA is responsible for this inactivity, but researchers have found that several proteins are also involved in the process. According to the researchers, the RNA complex and proteins have a role in the increased risk of autoimmune diseases in women.
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Howard Chang, a professor of cancer research and genetics at Stanford University stated that the RNA complex formation could cause antibodies to appear in the body that start attacking the proteins. Researchers have come to this conclusion by studying mice and humans. However, more research is needed to confirm the findings, and the scientific community is eagerly awaiting further developments.
This news is a creative derivative product from articles published in famous peer-reviewed journals and Govt reports:
References:
1. Fairweather, DeLisa, and Noel R. Rose. “Women and autoimmune diseases.” Emerging infectious diseases 10.11 (2004): 2005.
2. Dou, Diana R., et al. “XIST ribonucleoproteins promote female sex-biased autoimmunity.” Cell 187.3 (2024): 733-749.
3. Libert, Claude, Lien Dejager, and Iris Pinheiro. “The X chromosome in immune functions: when a chromosome makes the difference.” Nature Reviews Immunology 10.8 (2010): 594-604.
4. Fairweather, DeLisa, Sylvia Frisancho-Kiss, and Noel R. Rose. “Sex differences in autoimmune disease from a pathological perspective.” The American journal of pathology 173.3 (2008): 600-609.
5. Syrett, Camille M., et al. “Loss of epigenetic modifications on the inactive X chromosome and sex-biased gene expression profiles in B cells from NZB/W F1 mice with lupus-like disease.” Journal of autoimmunity 107 (2020): 102357.