MAMMAL MODEL FOR AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES WITH DYSFUNCTION OF SOCS-1 GENE

摘要

The present invention provides mammals lacking one of the SOCS-1 allele or those lacking the SOCS-1 gene and inducibly expressing SOCS-1 in lymphoid cells as systemic autoimmune disease models. Such animal models can be used for screening compounds for treating systemic autoimmune diseases such as SLE. Based on these results, the present inventors conceived that SLE may be diagnosed by detecting alterations in the nucleotice sequence of the gene encoding SOCS-1 or the regulatory sequence thereof. Furthermore, according to the present invention, SLE may be treated or prevented by administering the SOCS-1 gene to be expressed in lymphoid cells of the patient.