PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders : Autoimmune Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1601767
This article is part of the Research TopicEnvironmental Influences on Autoimmunity and Autoimmune DiseaseView all 7 articles
Impact of seasonal cycle on Rheumatoid Arthritis based on genetic and epigenetic mechanism
Provisionally accepted
- 1Human Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Division of Neurobiology, BRIC-Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, India, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, India
- 2Department of Computational Bioinformatics,, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
- 3Department of Rheumatology,, Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
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Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease characterised by chronic inflammation and progressive joint destruction. Genetic and environmental risk factors contribute to developing RA. Among environmental factors, seasonal cycles are reported to impact the clinical phenotypes in RA with rheumatic flares being aggravated during winter season. Gaining insight into the seasonal effects on molecular drivers can be vital in resolving seasonal cycles in RA pathogenesis. To understand this phenomenon, the GWAS and candidate genes were reviewed to identify their role in susceptibility to RA. Subsequently, it was verified how many of these genes are modulated by seasonal influence. Further, the role of epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation, and non-coding RNAs, involved in RA pathogenesis and if these epigenetic effects are also impacted by seasonal fluctuation. Finally, how these genetic and epigenetic investigations result in the breakdown of self-tolerance, resulting in initiating an autoimmune action. Upon overlapping the genetic and epigenetic observation influenced by seasonal cycles, it was evident that the seasonal cycles do impact the genetic and epigenetic machinery, which possibly can explain the reasons for seasonal flares in RA pathogenesis. The evidences indicate that genetic and epigenetic mechanism are driven by climatic variation and the timing and duration of aberrant expression of immune response genes will drive the autoantibodies in development of seasonal flares of RA.
Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis; RA, Seasonal cycles;, Genetics;, epigenetics;, miRNA; microRNA, DNA Methylation;, GWAS - genome-wide association study
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 13 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 E.K., P R, S and Banerjee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Moinak Banerjee, Human Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Division of Neurobiology, BRIC-Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, India, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram, India
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