Editorial The Autoimmune Tautology: From Polyautoimmunity and Familial Autoimmunity to the Autoimmune Genes

License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Autoimmune diseases (ADs) are chronic conditions initiated by the loss of immunological tolerance to self-antigens and represent a heterogeneous group of disorders that afflict spe-cific target organs or multiple organ systems [1]. The chronic nature of these diseases places a significant burden on the uti-lization of medical care, direct and indirect economic costs, and quality of life. The fact that ADs share several clinical signs and symptoms (i.e., subphenotypes), physiopatho-logical mechanisms, and genetic factors has been called autoimmune tautology and indicates that they have common mechanisms [2–8]. In clinical practice, there are two conditions supporting this theory: polyautoimmunity and familial autoimmunity