In addition, serum levels of the B-cell-activating factor (BAFF; also known as BLyS), known to be crucial for B-cell survival, are elevated in individuals with lupus and correlate positively with the appearance of autoantibodies and disease activity indexes (Cheema et al., 2001; Chong et al., 2014). The gene discussed is TNFSF13B; the disease is systemic lupus erythematosus.