IRF5 and obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency: Furthermore, as emerging studies have highlighted the substantial contributions of Irf5 to autoimmune diseases (Graham et al., 2006), neuropathic pain (Masuda et al., 2014), obesity (Dalmas et al., 2015), and hepatic fibrosis (Alzaid et al., 2016), future research should investigate whether Aff3ir-ORF2 has beneficial effects in these contexts.