“…It is one of the most common autoimmune diseases, affecting up to 2% of the global population [1]. The differentiating factors in RA include gender, with a higher prevalence in women, age, and geographical location [2,3]. Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have enabled the detection of specific risk genes associated with proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, signal transducers, transcriptional activators, and pathways, including over 100 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located outside of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system [4].…”