Innate immune cells stories

Oct 28, 2026

Scientists discover neutrophil mutations trigger autoimmune response in lupus patients

Researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology and University of Washington found that lupus patients have unusual mutations in neutrophils that generate novel peptides, which are recognized as foreign threats by T and B cells, driving autoimmune responses and antibody production.

Oct 28, 20262 sources

Top claims

▪Pathway analysis of aberrantly spliced genes in systemic lupus erythematosus neutrophils showed a strong bias for type I interferon-inducible genes, including IFI44L, MX1, OAS1, RSAD2, XAF1, IFI27, and IFIT1.
▪A study published in Nature on October 28, 2026, by researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology and the University of Washington identified 271 cryptic RNA splicing events in 130 genes within neutrophils from 33 of 34 systemic lupus erythematosus patients.
▪T cells recognise splicing-derived neoantigens on mutated neutrophils as foreign threats, mounting an attack that drives autoimmune inflammation in systemic lupus erythematosus patients.

Subtopics

Adaptive immune cells1 Autoimmune disease1 Biomedical research1 Genomics1 Immunology1 Molecular biology1

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