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Autoimmunity

Down syndrome: insights into autoimmune mechanisms

Understanding why individuals with Down syndrome are highly predisposed to autoimmunity has broad mechanistic and therapeutic implications. New work identifies novel potential mechanistic pathways driving increased autoimmunity-relevant CD11c+ B cells and provides the broadest view to date of the repertoire of autoantibodies generated in individuals with Down syndrome.

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Fig. 1: How Down syndrome can highlight a path to precision therapy of autoimmunity.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank A. Hocking for their helpful comments on this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jane H. Buckner.

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Competing interests

B.K. consults for TeraImmune and serves on the board for FreshTracks Therapeutics outside the submitted work. J.H.B. is a Scientific Co-Founder for GentiBio and Scientific Advisory Board member for GentiBio, a consultant for Bristol-Myers Squibb and Hotspot Therapeutics and has past and current research projects sponsored by Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squib, Janssen, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer. J.H.B is a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards for La Jolla Institute for Immunology, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, a Section Editor for UpToDate, and owns stock in Omeros and Gentibio outside the submitted work.

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Khor, B., Buckner, J.H. Down syndrome: insights into autoimmune mechanisms. Nat Rev Rheumatol 19, 401–402 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41584-023-00970-0

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