Mutations in MDA5 have been reported in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (Van Eyck et al. 2015) and autoinflammatory disorders: Aicardi–Goutieres syndrome (Oda et al. 2014; Rice et al. 2014) and Singleton–Merten syndrome (SMS) (Rutsch et al. 2015). Here, IFIH1 is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.