DNA methylation alterations as potential biomarkers in systemic lupus erythematosus diagnosis

A recent study suggests that DNA methylation alterations of genes like IFI44L, FOXP3, and MX1 have the potential to be Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) biomarkers. The results of this study were published in the journal, Lupus.

A systemic case-control review was conducted that included databases from the web of 44 eligible studies about DNA methylation alterations in SLE patients compared to healthy controls. A non-high-throughput technique was used to assess the DNA methylation of specific genes. In all, 3471 SLE patients and 1028 healthy individuals were included. Among the patients (n = 2853), females were 89.41% and males were 10.59%. The most investigated gene was IFI44L. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic power of methylation levels were only reported for IFI44L in five studies.

The most employed methylation profiling method was reported to be bisulfite sequencing polymerase chain reaction. 22 studies showed the correlation between methylation patterns and clinical parameters, and of them, 16 publications showed a remarkable association between DNA methylation status and clinical indices.

Thus, the methylation status of genes IFI44L, FOXP3, and MX1 has been suggested as promising SLE biomarkers. DNA methylation biomarkers can be considered as diagnostic biomarkers for systemic lupus erythematosus in future practices.

References:

Ehtesham, N., Habibi Kavashkohie, M. R., Mazhari, S. A., et al (2022). DNA methylation alterations in systemic lupus erythematosus: A systematic review of case-control studies. Lupus. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36573333/