Identification of functional common and rare variants in the CD40 signaling pathway in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a common chronic autoimmune disease that affects approximately 1% of the adult population worldwide. Although its causes are largely unknown, it is clear that there is a considerable heritable component. In 2007, three genome-wide association studies (GWAS) as well as candidate gene approaches successfully increased the number of RA gene loci from two to five.