News Releases & Research Results Identification of a novel protein that prevents the development of autoimmune diseases - The chromatin remodeling factor Chd4 plays a role in self-antigen expression and prevents autoimmune diseases -

The results of a collaborative study conducted by Yoshihiko Tomofuji (Faculty of Medicine at the time of research), Assistant Professor Hiroyuki Takaba, Professor Hiroshi Takayanagi, and other members of the Department of Immunology, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo.

• This study revealed that Chd4, a chromatin remodeling factor, plays a role in the expression of self-antigens associated with autoimmune diseases and maintains immune tolerance in the thymus.
• In particular, the integrated analysis of next-generation sequencing data indicated that Chd4 regulates both Fezf2 and Aire proteins, which have been reported to induce the expression of self-antigens and prevent the development of autoimmune diseases.
• The results of this study could potentially improve the understanding of the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases and aid the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic technologies.

This project was conducted with support from the Advanced Research and Development Programs for Medical Innovation (AMED-CREST) by AMED.

The results of study were published online in Nature Immunology on June 30.

Tomofuji Y., et al. Chd4 choreographs self-antigen expression for central immune tolerance Nature Immunology
DOI：10.1038/s41590-020-0717-2