Matthias Wabl, PhD

University of California, San Francisco, CA

2007 Why the Lupus Immune System Reacts to Its Own DNA

The blueprint for what makes us each unique—DNA and RNA—is carried inside the nucleus of each of our cells. Normally, our immune systems deftly distinguish our own DNA and RNA from that of foreign invaders such as viruses and bacteria.

But in people with lupus, the immune system reacts to its own DNA and RNA as if these blueprint “chips” were the enemy that required extermination. What prompts these cases of misidentification?

For example, the body’s DNA carries remnants of ancient viruses that once infected our ancestors, but then became an integral part of the human genome. Dr. Wabl hypothesizes that these viral relics are what that the lupus immune system mistakes for virus DNA, thus triggering the attack on the body’s own DNA.

Using mice, he will test whether destroying these virus-derived sections of DNA prevents the autoimmune attack.

Select publications

Early onset of autoimmune disease by the retroviral integrase inhibitor raltegravir. Beck-Engeser GB, Eilat D, Harrer T, Jäck HM, Wabl M. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Nov 18.

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