Multi-omics analyses on rheumatoid arthritis in CD4+ T cells

Objective: CD4+ T cells have been suggested as the most disease-relevant cell type in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in which RA-risk non-coding variants exhibit allele-specific effects on regulation of RA-driving genes. This study aimed to understand RA-specific signatures in CD4+ T cells using multi-omics data, interpreting inter-omics relationships in shaping the RA transcriptomic landscape.

Methods: We profiled genome-wide variants, gene expression, and DNA methylation in CD4+ T cells from 82 RA patients and 40 healthy controls using high-throughput technologies. We investigated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in RA and localized quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for expression and methylation. We then integrated these based on individual-level correlations to inspect DEG-regulating sources and investigated the potential regulatory roles of RA-risk variants by a partitioned-heritability enrichment analysis with RA genome-wide association...