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We thank Sofia Vargas and Gema Robledo for her excellent technical assistance and all the patients and control donors for their essential collaboration. We thank WTCCC (Welcome Trust Case Control Consortium) for the access to GWAS data of Crohn’s disease patients and healthy controls, Banco Nacional de ADN (University of Salamanca, Spain) who supplied part of the control DNA samples, and dbGap for granting access to the IBD Genetics Consortium (IBDGC) Crohn’s Disease GWAS data (phs000130.v1.p1). The IBDGC Crohn’s Disease Genome-Wide Association Study was conducted by the IBDGC Investigators and supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). This manuscript was not prepared in collaboration with Investigators of the IBDGC Crohn’s Disease Genome-Wide Association Study and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of the IBDGC Crohn’s Disease Genome-Wide Association Study, the NIDDK Central Repositories, or the NIDDK., Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified a number of genetic risk loci associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and Crohn’s disease (CD), some of which confer susceptibility to both diseases. In order to identify new risk loci shared between these two immune-mediated disorders, we performed a cross-disease meta-analysis including GWAS data from 5,734 SSc patients, 4,588 CD patients and 14,568 controls of European origin. We identified 4 new loci shared between SSc and CD, IL12RB2, IRF1/SLC22A5, STAT3 and an intergenic locus at 6p21.31. Pleiotropic variants within these loci showed opposite allelic effects in the two analysed diseases and all of them showed a significant effect on gene expression. In addition, an enrichment in the IL-12 family and type I interferon signaling pathways was observed among the set of SSc-CD common genetic risk loci. In conclusion, through the first cross-disease meta-analysis of SSc and CD, we identified genetic variants with pleiotropic effects on two clinically distinct immune-mediated disorders. The fact that all these pleiotropic SNPs have opposite allelic effects in SSc and CD reveals the complexity of the molecular mechanisms by which polymorphisms affect diseases., This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (SAF2015-66761-P; IPT-010000-2010-36, cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund), Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Tecnología, Junta de Andalucía (Spain) (P12-BIO-1395) and the Cooperative Research Thematic Network (RETICS) programme (RD16/0012/0013) (RIER) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII, Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness). AM is recipient of a Miguel Servet fellowship (CP17/00008) from ISCIII (Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness). DGS was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the FPI programme (SAF2015-66761-P). This work is part of the Doctoral Thesis “Bases Genéticas de la Esclerosis Sistémica: Integrando Genómica y Transcriptómica”.

Psoriasis is a common immune-mediated inflammatory condition that primarily affects skin and nails. 6-41% of psoriasis patients develop psoriatic arthritis (PsA). The ways in which PsA can manifest itself include peripheral arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis, dactylitis and enthesitis. This heterogeneous clinical picture makes it sometimes difficult to recognise PsA,potentially resulting in permanent joint damage and functional impairments. Some people see psoriasis and PsA as 2 manifestations of a single disease because the multifactorial origins of psoriasis and PsA are largely overlapping. Psoriatic conditions are associated with a high burden of disease, reduced quality of life and comorbidities, including psychiatric and cardiovascular conditions. In recent years, several immunological pathways, immune cells and cytokines have been identified as important factors in pathophysiology and as new therapeutic targets. For many PsA patients treatment with disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs leads to significant improvement of symptoms and quality of life.

OBJECTIVES: TYK2 is a common genetic risk factor for several autoimmune diseases. This gene encodes a protein kinase involved in interleukin 12 (IL-12) pathway, which is a well-known player in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Therefore, we aimed to assess the possible role of this locus in SSc. METHODS: This study comprised a total of 7103 patients with SSc and 12 220 healthy controls of European ancestry from Spain, USA, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and the UK. Four TYK2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (V362F (rs2304256), P1104A (rs34536443), I684S (rs12720356) and A928V (rs35018800)) were selected for follow-up based on the results of an Immunochip screening phase of the locus. Association and dependence analyses were performed by the means of logistic regression and conditional logistic regression. Meta-analyses were performed using the inverse variance method. RESULTS: Genome-wide significance level was reached for TYK2 V362F common variant in our pooled analysis ( p=3.08×10(−13), OR=0.83), while the association of P1104A, A928V and I684S rare and low-frequency missense variants remained significant with nominal signals ( p=2.28×10(−3), OR=0.80; p=1.27×10(−3), OR=0.59; p=2.63×10(−5), OR=0.83, respectively). Interestingly, dependence and allelic combination analyses showed that the strong association observed for V362F with SSc, corresponded to a synthetic association dependent on the effect of the three previously mentioned TYK2 missense variants. CONCLUSIONS: We report for the first time the association of TYK2 with SSc and reinforce the relevance of the IL-12 pathway in SSc pathophysiology.

[Introduction] A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) comprising a French cohort of systemic sclerosis (SSc) reported several non-HLA single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) showing a nominal association in the discovery phase. We aimed to identify previously overlooked susceptibility variants by using a follow-up strategy., [Methods] Sixty-six non-HLA SNPs showing a P value, [Results] We observed nominal associations for both PPARG rs310746 (P MH = 1.90 × 10-6, OR, 1.28) and CHRNA9 rs6832151 (P MH = 4.30 × 10-6, OR, 1.17) genetic variants with SSc in the first step of our study. In the replication phase, we observed a trend of association for PPARG rs310746 (P value = 0.066; OR, 1.17). The combined overall Mantel-Haenszel meta-analysis of all the cohorts included in the present study revealed that PPARG rs310746 remained associated with SSc with a nominal non-genome-wide significant P value (P MH = 5.00 × 10-7; OR, 1.25). No evidence of association was observed for CHRNA9 rs6832151 either in the replication phase or in the overall pooled analysis., [Conclusion] Our results suggest a role of PPARG gene in the development of SSc., This work was supported by the following grants: JM was funded by GEN-FER from the Spanish Society of Rheumatology, SAF2009-11110 and SAF2012-34435 from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, CTS-4977, and CTS-180 from Junta de Andalucía, and is sponsored by the Orphan Disease Program grant from the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). This study was also funded by PI-0590-2010, from Consejería de Salud y Bienestar Social, Junta de Andalucía, Spain. JLCR and JM are funded by Consejería de Salud, Junta de Andalucía, through PI-0590-2010. ELI was supported by Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte through the program FPU. TRDJR was funded by the VIDI laureate from the Dutch Association of Research (NWO) and Dutch Arthritis Foundation (National Reumafonds). TW was granted by DFG WI 1031/6.1. Study on USA samples were supported by US National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (NIH-NIAMS) R01-AR-055258, Two-Stage Genome Wide Association Study in Systemic Sclerosis (MDM) and by the NIH-NIAMS Center of Research Translation (CORT) in SSc (P50AR054144) (MDM, FCA, FKT), the NIH-NIAMS SSc Family Registry and DNA Repository (N01-AR-0-2251) (MDM), NIH-KL2RR024149 (SA), K23AR061436 (SA), and the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (W81XWH-07-01-0111) (MDM).

Introduction The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible role of CD40 and CD40 ligand (CD40LG) genes in the susceptibility and phenotype expression of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Methods In total, 2,670 SSc patients and 3,245 healthy individuals from four European populations (Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, and Italy) were included in the study. Five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of CD40 (rs1883832, rs4810485, rs1535045) and CD40LG (rs3092952, rs3092920) were genotyped by using a predesigned TaqMan allele-discrimination assay technology. Meta-analysis was assessed to determine whether an association exists between the genetic variants and SSc or its main clinical subtypes. Results No evidence of association between CD40 and CD40LG genes variants and susceptibility to SSc was observed. Similarly, no significant statistical differences were observed when SSc patients were stratified by the clinical subtypes, the serologic features, and pulmonary fibrosis. Conclusions Our results do not suggest an important role of CD40 and CD40LG gene polymorphisms in the susceptibility to or clinical expression of SSc., This work was supported by the following grants. JM was funded by SAF2009-11110 from the Spanish Ministry of Science, by CTS-4977 and PI-0590-2010 from Junta de Andalucía, and by RETICS Program, RD08/0075 (RIER) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), within the VI PN de I+D+i 2008-2011 (FEDER). T.R.D.J.R. was funded by the VIDI laureate from the Dutch Association of Research (NWO) and Dutch Arthritis Foundation (National Reumafonds). JM and TRDJR were sponsored by the Orphan Disease Program grant from the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR). TW was awarded grants by DFG WI 1031/6.1 and DFG KFO 250 TP03. MT was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science through the program Juan de la Cierva (JCI-2010-08227).

Purpose: Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease characterized by fibrosis of the skin and internal organs that leads to profound disability and premature death. Accumulating evidence point to a strong genetic component that is underlying the susceptibility of SSc. Here we aimed to identify the genetic factors that underly SSc. Method & Results: To identify the genetic traits for SSc, we performed a genome-wide association study comparing 842 European Caucasian SSc cases with 1711 European Caucasian controls exploiting the Illumina human BeadChip. Using a replication cohort comprising 1640 European Caucasian SSc cases and 1700 controls matched for country of origin we aimed to replicate the 11 most strongly non-MHC associated SNPs in the GWAS and replicated the association of STAT4 (P = 4.03E-10). After stratification for SSc phenotype, significant association (P