Hypomethylation status of two sites, CpG site1 (Chr1: 79,085,222) and CpG site 2 (Chr1: 79,085,250; cg06872964), within the promoter region of IFI44L (IFN-induced protein 44-like) were identified as biomarkers for the diagnosis of SLE and further validated in the Chinese population consisting of 1,144 lupus patients, 1,350 healthy subjects, 429 RA, patients and 199 patients of primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS), as well as in a European cohort (Zhao et al., 2016). Here, IFI44L is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.