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Table 1 Shared characteristics provide evidence that autoimmune diseases have a common origin

From: The autoimmune tautology

Preponderance of females.

Similar pathophysiology.

Systemic autoimmune diseases have similar signs and symptoms.

Severity is inversely related to the age of onset.

Similar environmental agents (that is, tobacco, Epstein-Barr virus, and so on) may influence autoimmune diseases.

Ancestry might influence the clinical presentation.

Common genetic factors (for example, HLA-DRB1, STAT4, IRF5, PTPN22, CD226, FCGR3B, CD44, and TAGAP).

Polyautoimunity (that is, autoimmune diseases may co-occur within patients).

Aggregation. Familial autoimmunity (that is, diverse autoimmune diseases on multiple members of a nuclear family) seems to be more frequent than familial autoimmune disease (that is, one specific autoimmune disease in various members of a nuclear family).

The same pharmacological agent (biologic and non-biologic) may be useful in treating diverse autoimmune diseases.