AN AUTOIMMUNE condition in which people lose some or all of their hair may result from mistaken attacks on hair follicles by the so-called natural killer white blood cells. The insight comes from a huge study that compared the genomes of more than 1000 individuals with the condition alopecia areata against those of people free of it.
of Columbia University in New York and her colleagues uncovered 18 genes linked with . As might be expected of an autoimmune disease, where the immune system turns on healthy tissue, all the genes play a role in controlling the growth and multiplication of cells in the immune system.
The strongest link was with a gene called ULBP. It codes for a protein that is a powerful activator of natural killer cells, which usually attack viruses and other pathogens.
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The team also found higher amounts of the protein in hair follicle tissue from people with alopecia areata than in samples from people free of it, providing additional evidence of its involvement (Nature, ). The team hope that these discoveries will provide new ways of treating the disease.
鈥淭his is a major breakthrough,鈥� says , a dermatologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia. 鈥淎fter decades of limited progress, this paper heralds a new era of discovery as we pick apart these genes one by one to determine their interplay in the disease.鈥�
