deCODE genetics study highlights potential drug targets for autoimmune thyroid disease

Scientists at deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, have published a study in Nature Communications, comparing over 110 thousand patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) from Iceland, Finland, UK and USA with 1,1 million controls. The findings of this study illustrate how a multiomics approach can reveal potential drug targets and safety concerns.

AITD affects over five percent of people during their lifetime and is the most common cause of thyroid dysfunction. The scientists found 290 sequence variants that associate with AITD and 115 of those had not been reported before.

Two of the newly discovered sequence variants with largest effect on the risk of AITD are in a gene that codes for LAG-3 (Lymphocyte-Activation Gene-3) which is a co-inhibitory receptor that is important for immune homeostasis, and a target of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for cancer. These variants have a founder effect in Iceland and Finland and demonstrate the power of bottlenecked populations to identify rare disease-associated variants with high risk, that provide insight into the pathogenesis and potential identification of drug targets.

The Icelandic LAG3 variant confers a 3.4-fold increased risk of AITD. It generates a novel start codon for protein coding and results in a reduced capacity to induce expression of the LAG3 gene in T-cell subsets. Both activated and exhausted T-cells as well as immortalized B-cells have lower expression of LAG-3 protein on their surface and in cell supernatant. The carriers of this variant have only half the plasma LAG-3 level of non-carriers. The variant associates with a five-fold increased risk of vitiligo, but vitiligo is like thyroid dysfunction a potential side-effect of LAG-3 inhibiting drugs, which unleash immune responses to fight cancer and can have autoimmune consequences.

Taken together, this report describes a novel major risk gene for autoimmune thyroid disease, and how the risk variant affects the expression of the gene on relevant cells and it's protein product, LAG-3, in blood, thereby demonstrating its functional importance, which is akin to drugs that inhibit LAG-3.

Source:
Journal reference:

Saevarsdottir, S., et al. (2024). Start codon variant in LAG3 is associated with decreased LAG-3 expression and increased risk of autoimmune thyroid disease. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50007-7.

Comments

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
Post a new comment
Post

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions.

You might also like...
UAB team develops a combined score to predict cancer treatment success