Role of genetics in pediatric rheumatology

Abstract

Pediatric rheumatology includes autoinflammatory monogenic diseases, autoinflammatory multifactorial diseases with complex inheritance, and diseases with uncertain clinical diagnosis or undefined conditions, even though they show signs of autoinflammation. Most of these diseases are systemic; it is important to diagnose patients promptly and definitively and to select proper treatment options based on the diagnoses. Clinical observation and acute-phase responses are usually sufficient for diagnosis; however, genetic analyses can provide supportive data for definite diagnosis and treatment, especially for rare monogenic diseases. As for multifactorial autoinflammatory diseases, susceptibility genes, and factors involved in the etiopathogenesis have not been fully identified. It is possible to identify disease genes and novel diseases, and lead to new treatment options by gene mapping studies and high-throughput screening strategies for multifactorial diseases and conditions with uncertain clinical characteristics. In this review, we discuss the three groups of autoinflammatory diseases and role of genetics in their diagnosis.