We acknowledge the limitations of the study as follows: 1) Established SLE patients were recruited whereby all patients had been on treatment, hence, a proportion of the patients demonstrated ANA seroconversion and lower disease activities; 2) A confirmatory cohort of SLE patients especially of SLE patients recruited from multiple centers is recommended to validate and expand on the findings of the current study; and 3) We did not investigate which Th cell subsets expressing IL-17RA or IL-23R were altered such as Th1 and Th17 populations. Here, IL23R is linked to systemic lupus erythematosus.