A genome-wide association study reveals ARL15, a novel non-HLA susceptibility gene for rheumatoid arthritis in North Indians.

In this first GWAS of RA among North Indians, ARL15 emerged as a novel genetic risk factor in addition to the classic HLA locus, which suggests that population-specific genetic loci as well as those shared between Asian and European populations contribute to RA etiology. Furthermore, our study reveals the potential of machine learning methods in unraveling gene-gene interactions using GWAS data.