Rs4948496 within ARID5B gene is associated with clinical features of systemic lupus erythematosus in the Chinese Han population

Abstract In our previous meta-analysis of genome-wide association study, we identified the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs4948496 (P = 5.1 × 10(-11) , odds ratio [OR] = 0.85) within the ARID5B gene associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a Chinese population. To investigate its association with disease subphenotypes, we further analyzed the genotype data of rs4948496 in 4348 cases and 6679 controls from our previous meta-analysis and an independent replication cohort in this study. The SNP rs4948496 was significantly associated with SLE (P = 1.61 × 10(-5) , OR = 0.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.83-0.93) in our group. In case-only study, the genotype of rs4948496 was associated with antinuclear antibodies (P = 0.03, OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.68-0.98) and anti-RNP (P = 0.03, OR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.76-0.99). This study showed that rs4948496 in ARID5B is associated with several subphenotypes of SLE and this gene may cause the complicacy of clinical features.