1. What is SLE a disease? Is it contagious? Is it an incurable disease? SLE is a typical systemic autoimmune disease with different clinical manifestations, which can cause multi-system damage to the skin, joints, plasma membranes, heart, kidneys, nervous system, and blood system. SLE serology is characterized by the presence of multiple autoantibodies. The disease can develop worldwide, mostly in young women, with a male to female ratio of 1:9 and a male to female incidence rate of 1:30 in the reproductive years, with a peak incidence at the age of 15 to 40. SLE has a family tendency to run in families, but is not an infectious disease. Patients without effective treatment have a short survival time and high mortality rate, but SLE is not an incurable disease. In recent years, after active and effective treatment, the survival time is significantly prolonged, the quality of life is improved, and the mortality rate is significantly reduced. 2.What are the causes of SLE? What is the pathogenesis? The etiology and pathogenesis of SLE are not yet clear. Current research suggests that the pathogenesis of SLE is related to both intrinsic factors such as genetics and sex hormones, as well as environmental factors and drugs. The interaction of various factors such as genetic quality, environmental factors, and estrogen levels leads to a decrease in T lymphocytes, a decrease in T suppressor cell function, and an overproliferation of B cells, which produce a large number of autoantibodies and combine with corresponding autoantigens in the body to form corresponding immune complexes that are deposited on the skin, joints, small blood vessels, glomeruli, etc., and cause acute and chronic inflammation and tissue necrosis with the participation of complement (e.g. lupus nephritis), or antibodies directly interact with tissue cell antigens to cause cell destruction (e.g. specific antigens of red blood cells, lymphocytes and platelet walls combine with corresponding autoantibodies to cause hemolytic anemia, lymphocytopenia and thrombocytopenia, respectively), thus leading to multi-system damage of the body. 3. Is SLE hereditary? To what extent do genetic factors play a role in SLE? SLE is a consequence of abnormal regulation of immunity as a result of the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. There is a genetic component to the development of SLE. The susceptibility to SLE is polygenically determined. Monozygotic twins are 10 times more likely to develop SLE than dizygotic twins; 10% to 16% of SLE patients have first- or second-degree relatives with SLE; first-degree relatives with SLE have an 8-fold or greater increased risk of developing SLE; and studies of the human genome have found that SLE is associated with regions of multiple chromosomes. All of these suggest a genetic link to SLE. However, the highest prevalence reported for monozygotic twins is only 58%, so other factors such as environmental factors also play a role in the development of SLE.