Recently, Nature and Nature Cell Biology published five papers on the function and molecular mechanism of ADAR1 (adenosine deaminases acting on RNA) in aging, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.1–5 Among them, four papers published in Nature revealed that ADAR1 regulates autoimmune disease and cancer immunotherapy through canonical adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing.1–4 Using a different approach, the paper in Nature Cell Biology discovered that ADAR1 could suppress senescence by regulating p16INK4a expression through an RNA editing independent non-canonical pathway.5 This evidence concerns the gene ADA and autoimmune disease.