B cells from healthy donors were treated respectively with IFN-α or R848, a TLR7 ligand or anti-IgM/CD40 alone, or with two joint (anti-IgM/CD40+R848) or three joint (anti-IgM/CD40+R848+IFN-α) stimuli for 6 h, and then the expression of the selected target genes, based on above analysis on microarrays of active SLE B cells, was detected by real-time PCR. This evidence concerns the gene IFNA1 and systemic lupus erythematosus.