STAT4 and autoimmune disease: Furthermore, multiple type I IFN-related genes were found to be related to the pathogenesis of one or more of the autoimmune diseases mentioned above from genetic association studies, including STAT4, IRF5, IFIH1, and PLZF (Stefan et al., 2014; Ghodke-Puranik and Niewold, 2015; Kochi, 2016).