IRF5 and rheumatoid arthritis: The IRF5 gene plays a role in the immune response, and several SNPs (rs4728142, rs2004640, rs1744583) and small insertions/deletions in the IRF5 gene or regulatory regions have been validated to independently cause SLE, MS and RA by altering gene expression, splicing, and RNA stability (46) These findings indicate that although SLE, MS, and RA have different clinical manifestations, there is a genetic overlap, which may reflect common mechanisms in their immune regulatory pathways.