Presented at the 13th International Congress on Autoimmunity in Athens, Greece
Speaker: Juan-Manuel Anaya
Speaker: Juan-Manuel Anaya
An Autoimmune Tautology refers to the fact that autoimmune diseases share several clinical signs and symptoms, physiopathological mechanisms, and genetic factors that support their having a common ancestor
Anaya has proposed several arguments that support the hypothesis and has updated them to include:
Female predominance
Shared sub phenotypes
Polyautoimmunity
Coaggregation (familial autoimmunity)
Age at onset and severity
Similar pathophysiology
Similar environmental factors (autoimmune ecology)
Similar genetic factors
Ancestry
Treatment
Anaya originally stated that “although autoimmune diseases exhibit contrasting epidemiological features, pathology, and clinical manifestations, three lines of evidence demonstrate that these diseases share similar immunogenetic mechanisms (that is, autoimmune tautology). First, clinical evidence highlights the co-occurrence of distinct autoimmune diseases within an individual (that is, polyautoimmunity) and within members of a nuclear family (that is, familial autoimmunity). Second, physiopathologic evidence indicates that the pathologic mechanisms may be similar among autoimmune diseases. Lastly, genetic evidence shows that autoimmune phenotypes might represent pleiotropic outcomes of the interaction of non-specific disease genes.”
Further explanations regarding the updated tautology hypothesis:
1. Female predominance
2. Shared sub-phenotypes among autoimmune diseases
3. Polyautoimmunity
4. Aggregation (Familial autoimmunity)
5. Age at onset and severity
6. Similar pathophysiology
7. Similar environmental factors (autoimmune ecology)
8. Similar genetic factors
9. Ancestry
10. Treatment